VIC: Osland wins grant to continue her fight

AAP General News (Australia)
12-14-2007
VIC: Osland wins grant to continue her fight

By Jeff Turnbull

MELBOURNE, Dec 14 AAP - A domestic violence victim jailed for murdering her abusive
husband has won the right to appeal for access to documents outlining why she was denied
a pardon.

Heather Osland, who was sent to jail in 1996 for 14-and-a-half years for killing Frank
Osland, was today granted special leave to seek access to the documents in the Victorian
Supreme Court of Appeal.

Osland's counsel Ron Merkel QC argued there had been a denial of natural justice in
his client being prohibited to see the Victorian government's written decision for refusing
her plea for mercy.

Osland's murder trial had attracted attention because of her use of battered woman
syndrome to explain the murder of her husband after 13 years of physical, sexual and emotional
abuse.

Following her murder trial, the Victorian government introduced a bill allowing victims
of family violence who kill their partners to claim self-defence even if they were not
facing immediate attack.

Osland was released in July 2005 after serving a minimum nine-and-a-half years and
is serving out a three-year parole order.

Outside the court, surrounded by family and supporters, Osland said she was happy she
would now have the opportunity to resume her fight for a pardon.

"It gives me the opportunity to take it further and to find out why the government
did not grant my petition of mercy," Osland said.

Osland said if the government had granted her appeal for mercy in 2000 she would have
been released in time to see her first grandchild born.

"If they had granted my petition of mercy I would have been released in 2000 and I
would have been free to be released from prison without the conditions of parole and without
serving those extra four years," she said.

"I would have had those four years to be with my family and I would have seen the birth
of my grandchild."

AAP jxt/pmu/jl/bwl

KEYWORD: OSLAND

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