Anybody remember the Louise Wooward case?the english nanny that was convicted of killing a baby in her care (Newton, MA). At the time, the british tabloid press went wild in its denunciations of American justice-and a huge amount of money was raised in her village, for her defense. I have two questions: at the same time in England, and Australian nanny was charged with the same crime-how did she fare? And, Louises’ parents are now in trouble for stealing from her defense fund-how did they make out?
To answer your questions as best I can:
Certain elements of the tabloid press immediately leap to the defence of British people accused of crimes overseas (with the exception of sex crimes). It’s a knee-jerk reaction based, as far as I can see, on the idea that foreign justice is not good enough for British people. I’ve seen the same reaction in the lower end of the US and French press to their citizens being tried overseas.
That said, differences between the US and English legal systems mean that she would have been treated very differently here if she had done the same thing: she would probably have been charged with manslaughter, rather than murder, if she had been charged with anything at all. If the Crown Prosecution Service decided that she was out of her depth, she panicked, etc, but that she did not act maliciously or recklessly, they might have decided that it was not in the public interest to prosecute her. In any event, she would never have faced the death penalty (I can’t remember if MA has it or not, so that may not have been an issue).
After the trial, one of her lawyers was stopped for drunk-driving. She (the lawyer) told police that it was the strain of defending somebody who was obviously guilty which had driven her to drink. I am sure that this is regarded just as much as gross professional misconduct in the States as it would be here – a solicitor or barrister who tried to allege a client’s guilt to defend herself would be disciplined by the Law Society or the Bar Council – but it probably helped to build sympathy for Woodward.
The same lawyer was caught up in the allegations that her parents had embezzled money from the defence fund. She claimed that they had claimed that they paid for her hotel bill when she came over here, when in fact she stayed with them. The case is currently sub judice. In another thread in the Pit, the Mods have asked us not to make factual claims which are potentially actionable, so I shan’t say whether it looks like they’re guilty or not. But a hell of a lot of money was raised and it doesn’t look like it all went on legal fees.
As for the Australian nanny, IIRC she was convicted of manslaughter and given a conditional discharge (i.e. no punishment). To reiterate: she was not charged with the same crime, but with the lesser crime of manslaughter.
Forgot to ask: What’s the Great Debate?