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→ Lucy Letby verdict questioned by British newspapers
When nurse Lucy Letby was sentenced last year to life imprisonment for the murder of seven babies in her care, the British national press labelled her variously a “monster”, “evil”, and guilty of “a crime of unimaginable horror”. Now, after another conviction last week, the media perspective is beginning to shift.
Today, the Guardian and the Telegraph have both run published articles questioning the verdict, consulting experts to raise concerns about a lack of forensic evidence and discrepancies in witness testimonies.
Lucy Letby: killer or coincidence? Why some experts question the evidence https://t.co/BV58Dc3UZL
— The Guardian (@guardian) July 9, 2024
Doubt was cast over the Letby case in May, when the New Yorker published a 13,000-word piece challenging the verdict (the article remains unavailable to readers in the UK for legal reasons). Later that month, Conservative MP David Davis used Parliamentary privilege to address the essay and the case in the Commons.
Neither the Guardian nor the Telegraph articles from today argue that Letby is innocent of the charges, though each quotes experts who call the statistical and witness evidence “seriously flawed”. As with Adnan Syed in America, will Letby become a true-crime cause célèbre?
→ AOC toes the establishment line on Joe Biden
At some stage in life, every rebel must grow up, and that time might have come for Left-wing “Squad” member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The representative for New York’s 14th congressional district has held the party line on Joe Biden staying in the race for the presidency, telling reporters yesterday: “I have spoken with him extensively. He made clear then and he has made clear since that he is in this race. The matter is closed… Joe Biden is our nominee.”
Rep. @AOC: President Biden has made clear that he is in this race. The matter is closed. Biden is our nominee. He is in this race and I support him. He is running against Donald Trump, who is a man with 34 felony convictions. Not a single Republican has asked for Donald Trump to… pic.twitter.com/MOvUu3VQU5
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) July 8, 2024
The Democrats were holding a meeting about how to deal with their Biden-shaped disaster. Rep. Steve Cohen left saying that Democrats were not “even on the same book” never mind the same page. Rep. Jerry Nadler has been flip-flopping. Meanwhile, former speaker Nancy Pelosi was silent in the face of questions as she entered the meeting. AOC herself seems to be on the path to “Pelosification”, and it’s surely only a matter of time before she’s a fixture in the Democratic establishment. If you can’t beat them, join them…
→ Media finally gets confrontational with the White House
It’s been a tough week for Democrats. The media’s newfound interest in Joe Biden’s cognitive issues has led to a feeding frenzy against the entire party, with reporters going on the offensive.
The Presidential Briefing Room descended into chaos yesterday, when Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre became visibly perturbed and refused to answer questions about a Parkinson’s doctor making repeated trips to the White House. In fairness, years of questions about the President’s ice cream preferences have hardly prepared Jean-Pierre for this PR crisis.
Jill Biden similarly chided reporters for “screaming at [her]” after they asked questions about the state of the election, and the Biden campaign has publicly criticised liberal journalist Brian Stelter. If Biden loses the MSM, it really is over…
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SubscribeI dare not read the articles on Letby. I use the Sally Clark miscarriage of justice to illustrate to my students how bad statistics can be cruel.
Almost exactly what one of the academic statisticians says about the Letby case in the Telegraph.
I’ve read the Telegraph article, and while it may not say ‘Letby is innocent’ in so many words, it positively shouts it by implication.
There are elements in Letby’s case that do rather imply that she was scapegoated for issues and errors at a massively malfunctioning hospital. If that’s the case it’s rather appalling and even if she is innocent far too many involved parties will never allow that to come to light.