Sally Clark

Sally Clark

The British solicitor Sally Clark was convicted in November 1999 for the murder of her two children, Christopher in 1996, and Harry, early in 1998, both within a few weeks of their birth. The convictions were upheld at an appeal in October 2000, but quashed in a second appeal in January 2003, because material evidence of a medical nature had come to light, which had not been available either to the trial court, or the first appeal.

The case has also been much criticised because of the way statistical evidence had been misrepresented in the original trial, particularly by expert witness Sir Roy Meadow, former Professor of Paediatrics at Leeds University. In October 2000 The Royal Statistical Society issued a press release which pointed out some of the problems, while the appeal judges concluded "...it seems likely that if this matter had been fully argued before us we would, in all probability, have considered that the statistical evidence provided a quite distinct basis upon which the appeal had to be allowed." See Prosecutor's fallacy for a fuller analysis of these issues.

External links

http://www.sallyclark.org.uk/

Press release by the Royal Statistical Society about the Sally Clark case: http://www.rss.org.uk/archive/reports/sclark.html