The Lucia de Berk case was a miscarriage of justice in the Netherlands in which a Dutch licensed paediatric nurse was wrongfully convicted of murder. In 2003, Lucia de Berk was sentenced to life imprisonment, for which no parole is possible under Dutch law,[1] for four murders and three attempted murders of patients under her care. In 2004, after an appeal, she was convicted of seven murders and three attempted murders.
Her conviction was controversial in the media and among scientists, and it was questioned by the investigative reporter Peter R. de Vries. Most prominently, the prosecution's case rested on statistical misrepresentation.[2] In October 2008, the case was reopened by the Dutch Supreme Court, as new facts had been uncovered that undermined the previous verdicts. De Berk was freed, and her case retried; she was exonerated in April 2010.[3][4]
- ^ More Dutch prisoners serving life without parole Archived 25 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Barbara Rijlaarsdam, NRC Handelsblad, 22 November 2009
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
sciencewas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Nurse Lucia de Berk finally found not guilty of murdering seven patients". 14 April 2010. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011.
- ^ "Apology for nurse jailed for murdering seven patients", AP, The Independent 14 April 2010.