Murderess or Miscarriage of Justice? A Case of Husband Poisoning in Early Federation New South Wales

Abstract

Scholarship on women and homicide has focused increasingly on the ways in which race, class, ethnicity, and sexual identity intersect to produce patterns of severity and leniency toward women accused of murder. However, prosecutions of individuals rarely hook neatly into such matrices. This article uses an alleged instance of husband poisoning in early Federation New South Wales to illustrate the capacity of case studies to illuminate the contingencies of capital justice. Far from an instance of women's lethal violence springing from male abuse, or a straightforward example of the patriarchal legal system at work, Jane Hetherington's conviction was a likely miscarriage of justice. Show more