Sally Clark

Sally Clark 1964-2007





 
 
Sally Clark

Case history written in January 2000 by Sally's father, Frank Lockyer

Why the conviction?

Faced with no motive, no aggressive act and no cause of death, the speculation must be that 10 members of the jury who convicted were swayed by the sheer prejudice of the statistic cited by Professor Meadow - that two cot deaths are a 73 million to one chance. He is not even a statistician. Or the "one-liners" innocently offered by Steve and Sally themselves when interviewed by the police. They agreed that Sally took time to settle up North until she made friends; that ideally they would have waited for a family until her legal career was established, but her biological clock was ticking and they decided on a family; that, yes, Sally as bridesmaid at best friend  Fiona's wedding Sally did like to look smart and wondered whether she would get into her dresses again. All this trotted out by the Prosecution as a depressed mother, a career girl with a comfortable life style who did not want a family! Or, maybe the jury were swayed by inferences that Sally was rather too upset at the hospital; or after waiting four weeks she was rather too anxious for the autopsy report; or that she demonstrated Harry's collapse wrongly; or the exploitation of minor discrepancies on the sequence of events on the night. Inferences in the Prosecutor's speech but never supported by evidence.

The consensus is that, backed by five eminent specialist professors, the Defence won the medical arguments and the jury's verdict astonished everyone present. The speculation is that the jury did not understand the medical evidence and took soundbites, reaching a majority decision on the disbelief that "lightning could strike twice" - plus the damning statistics from Professor Meadow, which are universally refuted even by the authors of the report from which the purports were made.



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