Oct. 6 (UPI) — Australian prosecutors filed an appeal on Monday against the now-convicted mother and mushroom murderer Erin Patterson.
The appeal was made on the basis that “the sentence handed down to Erin Patterson is manifestly inadequate,” Australia’s Department of Public Prosecutions confirmed.
Patterson, an Australian mother convicted of killing her estranged husband’s parents and aunt by serving them a dish containing poisonous death cap mushrooms, was sentenced to three life sentences and charges for attempted murder after a victim survived.
Her sentences were to be served concurrently for a period of 33 years before parole eligibility. Patterson will be in her 80s by the time she’s eligible.
Her jail term was one of the longest in Australia given to a female offender.
Defense lawyers for Patterson, 51, have yet to lodge an appeal of her conviction.
But according to Australian law, her appeal is not an automatic right and must be approved by an appeal court on the grounds of supposed errors in the legal process.
Richard Edney, Patterson’s lawyer, said in Melbourne last week during a court hearing that an appeal was pending.
She now has double the time of the 28-day maximum appeal window under temporary new legal guidance by Victoria’s Supreme Court.
