Summary
Netflixand ITN have joined forces to produce a documentary about Lucy Letby and the growing doubts over her murder conviction. The former nurse was found guilty of killing seven babies and a further six attempted murders.The upcoming documentary will reportedly feature experts who have raised doubts over Letby’s conviction, and Netflix could be set to try and solve the mystery surrounding the high-profile case.
Netflix is known for producing high qualitytrue crime masterpieces, and the streaming platform rose to prominence in this particular sub-genre with 2015’sMaking a Murderer, which questioned the conviction of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey for the murder of Theresa Halbach in Wisconsin. The series raised serious concerns about the case, and it led to a worldwide conversation about the fragility of the American justice system.The Lucy Letby documentary needs to raise awareness of the UK’s own troubled court system and find out the real truth behind the controversial case.
Untitled Lucy Letby Documentary
Potential Contributors
Richard Gill, Peter Green, David Davis, Mark McDonald, Jane Hutton and Dr Shoo Lee
Produced by
Netflix and ITN
The power oftrue-crime documentaries in the re-investigation of murder casescannot be underestimated, especially when Netflix is behind it.The streaming service created a phenomenon with their true-crime documentary series,Making a Murderer, and it arguably led to the case being looked at again. The question over whether Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey were guilty of murder became irrelevant, as concerns were raised about the collection of evidence and the so-called ‘experts’ who testified at the trials.The issue became about whether Avery and especially Dassey were the victims of an ‘unsafe conviction’. If the authorities are willing to frame suspects who they think are guilty, it sets a very dangerous precedent for all defendants in these types of cases.
Netflix’s next big true crime offeringis covering a case that is very different to the one featured inMaking a Murderer. However,the doubts raised about the conviction of Lucy Letby could raise awareness of how the justice system works (or doesn’t work) across the pond.The media weren’t allowed to report on Lucy Letby’s trial until a verdict was heard, which raises some serious questions. Letby’s trial was one of the longest in UK history, and a court order was issued to prevent the media from reporting on it. Why? The UK has a history of railroading innocent people, and sweeping it under the carpet. That is not to say that Lucy Letby is innocent, but after her conviction,many experts raised serious concerns about how her trial was conducted. Netflix now has the opportunity to look into the case with a fresh pair of eyes and uncover the real truth.
Lucy Letby Was Convicted Of Murdering Seven Babies But The Case Against Her Was Extremely Weak And Many Experts Have Raised Concerns About It
An Overview Of The Lucy Letby Case
Netflix and ITN are currently in the planning stages of the Lucy Letbytrue crime documentary, and are seeking out the involvement of a string of experts.One of those experts is Richard Gill, who has been quoted as saying he thinks Letby’s conviction was a ‘major miscarriage of justice’. The emeritus math professor at Leiden University claimed that the statistical evidence presented to the jury during the trial was ‘bogus’. Letby was convicted last summer, and she was also convicted of an attempted murder last month following a retrial at Manchester Crown Court.Letby received 15 whole life orders in total and will spend the rest of her life in prison.
Richard Gill was critical of how a staff rota which was a key piece of evidence during the trial was presented to the jury. The rota revealed that Letby was on shift during 25 of the deaths or collapses between June 2015 and June 2016. However, Gill and other experts have claimed the data may have been misinterpreted as it failed to include incidences when Letby wasn’t on duty. Statistics professor, Peter Green claimed the jury weren’t told about six other deaths that happened during that same 12-month period. He also claims the chart didn’t reflect the fact that Letby had worked a lot of extra shifts.
A Nurse Called Lucia de Berk Was The Victim Of A Miscarriage of Justice And It Has Similarities To Lucy Letby’s Case
According to reports,the documentary is set to be hugely controversial, which is not surprising because Netflix is known for this approach.It does need to be respectful of the victims' families who have been through absolute hell. However, they deserve to know the truth if there has been a miscarriage of justice. It is believed that ITN won exclusive access to Cheshire police and prosecutors for the upcoming joint project with Netflix, so despite the controversy, the finished project is bound to look at both sides and represent a balanced argument.
The issues with Lucy Letby’s trial were raised in an insightful 13,000-word article inThe New Yorker, which was banned in the UK in order to comply with a court order restricting press coverage of Letby’s ongoing trial. At the time of the article’s release, Letby was in the midst of a retrial for one attempted murder, but despite the case now being concluded, the article is still hard to get hold of in the UK. Upon issuing the order, The Crown Prosecution Service said:
There should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.
Conservative MP David Daviswas critical of the block on the New Yorker story and was quoted as saying:
I’m sure that the court order was well intended, but it seems to me in defiance of open justice.
Davis has since taken on Lucy Letby’s case, and has raised the issue in parliament, and he is looking to get a criminal case review commission referral.In addition to this, Lucy Letby is set to challenge the last of her convictions at the Court of Appeal next month, after her original appeal for the 14 convictions was rejected in May 2024. A public inquiry into the events surrounding Letby’s ‘crimes’ is ongoing, despite the doubts raised about her conviction. Letby’s new lawyer, Mark McDonald, is also planning to make an application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) in a last ditch attempt to get Letby’s conviction overturned.
The Lucy Letby Case Is Controversial But Netflix Has The Opportunity To Discover The Real Truth
Leading experts in the medical field have also spoken out about the flawed nature of the evidence used to convict Letby.19 nurses grouped together and sent a letter to the British Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, urging him to look into the case. In the letter, nurses warned that the Letby case had left them ‘terrified’ to continue working in the National Health Service (NHS) in case they are blamed for the deaths of patients in their care. They claim that there were issues with short staffing and an influx of premature babies into Letby’s unit during the period of spike in deaths. It is a possibility that, rather than facing up to the inadequacies in the NHS, the higher ups chose to railroad an innocent nurse to cover their own failings. The NHS is hero worshiped in the UK and nobody is allowed to question their conduct. However,the NHS isn’t immune from corruption within its ranks, and it’s something Netflix should investigate in their upcoming documentary.
At the trial, the prosecution star witness was former pediatric consultant, Dr Dewi Evans, who claimed that an air embolism was responsible for the deaths of some of the babies. The theory was based on a research paper written in 1989 by neonatologist Dr Shoo Lee on the ‘phenomenon’ of air embolisms. Dr Lee described ‘a distinctive rash of bright pink blood vessels against a blue skin’ as a sign of an air embolism. At Letby’s Court of Appeal hearing,Dr Lee spoke for the defense and stated that the distinctive rash he had outlined did not appear to be that described by witnesses in this case.
A person shouldn’t be convicted based on a hypothesis. Also,the trial was so one-sided, with experts unwilling to come forward to testify in Letby’s defense, due to fears that it could spell the end of their careers due to the controversial nature of the case.Letby never searched online for any of the supposed causes of death, and a big turning point in the case was Letby’s so-called ‘confession’. After she was initially suspected of the murders, Letby sought therapy and was encouraged to write down her thoughts and feelings. These notes shouldn’t have been admissible as evidence in a court of law, but they were, and it was a key component that led to her conviction.
