Petition to appeal Baden-Clay decision

THOUSANDS of people have signed a petition calling on Queensland’s attorney-general to appeal Gerard Baden-Clay’s downgraded conviction.

THOUSANDS of people have signed a petition calling on Queensland’s attorney-general to appeal Gerard Baden-Clay’s downgraded conviction.

Baden-Clay’s conviction for killing wife Allison in April 2012 was this week reduced from murder to manslaughter by the Court of Appeal.

The Australian Missing Persons Register has launched a petition on Change.org calling on acting Attorney-General Cameron Dick to file an appeal against the decision.

“We, the people of Australia, are outraged by the decision of the QLD court to reduce Gerard’s Baden-Clay’s conviction for the murder of his wife, Allison Baden-Clay, to the lesser charge of manslaughter,” the petition says.

By Thursday morning, the petition had already received more than 2,300 supporters.

Nicole Morris, from the Australian Missing Persons Register, wrote on her Facebook regarding the petition: “I had the first 10 signatures within 50 seconds. Please sign, my friends, and I will make sure Cameron Dick knows the feelings of all Australians about this gross miscarriage of justice for Allison.”

In the ruling on Tuesday, Chief Justice Catherine Holme and two other judges found the jury could not have been satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Baden-Clay intended to kill or cause serious harm to Allison.

Justice Holme said it was likely Baden-Clay had delivered a fatal blow to his wife during a confrontation and in a state of panic, took her body to Kholo Creek in the hope that it would be washed away.

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She said there was nothing about the facial scratches on Baden-Clay’s face, which he claimed were cuts from shaving, that indicated whether they happened in the course of a heated argument or in resisting a murderous attack.

There are 26 days left for an appeal to be filed against the downgraded conviction.

Baden-Clay had served three and a half years of his life sentence for murder but now faces a much lesser jail term and could be eligible for parole by 2020 or sooner.

The petition can be found HERE

Originally published as Petition to appeal Baden-Clay decision