Adelaide woman charged with murdering stepdaughter seeks government aid for legal defence

A South Australian woman who could face execution if she is convicted of her stepdaughter’s murder in the US is hoping for taxpayer legal help to fight her charges.

Lisa Cunningham and her husband Germayne Cunningham are charged for the murder of Sanaa Cunningham.

• Family say they’ll lobby tooth and nail to fund defence
• Lisa Cunningham says authorities ignored her cries for help

A South Australian woman who could face execution if she is convicted of her stepdaughter’s murder in the US is hoping for taxpayer legal help to fight her charges.

Lisa Marie Cunningham, 43, could become the first Australian woman on death row if found guilty of the death of seven-year-old Sanaa, in Arizona in February 2017.

In a jailhouse interview with The Advertiser yesterday, the Mannum-born mother of four said she was gutted by the allegations.

She claimed Australian Government help was imminent, through a taxpayer-funded lawyer to help fight the death penalty – a punishment Canberra opposes.

Mrs Cunningham, a prison guard, and her husband, former Phoenix armed robbery detective Germayne Cunningham, 39, say they are innocent of first-degree murder, alleged to have occurred in her adopted home.

She said they were good parents to his “dangerously schizophrenic” daughter, who they did not abuse or restrain in squalid conditions.

Sanaa Cunningham died aged seven in February 2017.

She claimed Sanaa died from pneumonia and the effects of special prescribed medication.

“The Australian Government has provided a ... private attorney for me, who will be joining the case,” she said.

“They pay for... a capital defence attorney. This all went on about two weeks ago, and as soon as I get her contract in the mail, then she will be a spokesperson for me.” The Federal Government offers financial support to citizens in trouble overseas, including the Serious Overseas Criminal Matters Scheme.

The scheme is available to people arrested overseas if they face more than 20 years in jail or the death penalty.

Mrs Cunningham has been receiving Foreign Affairs consular assistance that includes official help with local authorities, lawyers and family communication as well as prison and court visits.

Government sources say diplomats have also voiced death penalty concerns to US politicians at a “variety of levels”.

She is in solitary confinement at the maximum-security wing of the desert Estrella Women’s Jail, near Phoenix.

“I am actually in involuntary... segregation, same as Germayne,” she said. “So we are locked down 23 hours a day, because of our prior law enforcement. This system is so horrific. The things that have gone on since I’ve been here... It’s unbelievable.”

She said it was “devastating” to watch her second husband suffer “knowing he saved lives, that he put his life on the line many times”.

“The things that we have gone through in our lives, to have the family that we had, and to lose one and to be accused of being responsible for, it has gutted us,” she said.

Attorney-General Christian Porter’s spokesman said last night: “We don’t comment on the outcome or substance of individual cases with respect to financial assistance for defence, but can note that no completed application has been received from Ms Cunningham.”

The case returns to court later this month.