Australian mother Lisa Cunningham facing death row in US for murder

In the case against Lisa Cunningham, US prosecutors says she acted as an evil stepmother who tortured a 7-year-old girl to death.

Australian Lisa Cunningham and her American husband Germayne, who have both been charged with the first-degree murder of their daughter Sanaa.

An Australian mother of four is facing the possibility of the death penalty in the US state of Arizona after being charged with the first-degree murder of her seven-year-old mentally ill stepdaughter.

Lisa Cunningham, 43, who grew up in Adelaide and moved to the US after marrying an American serviceman a little over 20 years ago, was taken into custody in Phoenix on Wednesday last week, after prosecutors told the court they had assembled enough evidence to seek her ­execution.

Prosecutors have framed the case against Mrs Cunningham, a suburban housewife whose ­husband is a former police detective in Phoenix, as one in which she acted as an evil stepmother ­towards her stepdaughter, Sanaa: torturing the little girl for poor ­behaviour by keeping her zip-tied to a large water container in the garage; forcing her to sleep on the patio or in the laundry; keeping her restrained for hours in a ­special shirt with extra-long sleeves, similar to those once found in mental hospitals; and failing to treat a serious wound on her foot that later turned septic.

Mrs Cunningham and her ­husband, Germayne, also charged with first-degree murder, vehemently deny the charges. They say they were doing all in their power to assist Sanaa, whose mental health problems, including schizophrenia, caused her to injure herself and lash out at others.

Mrs Cunningham is believed to be the only Australian woman to face the possibility of the death penalty in the US and the first Australian since Californian authorities hanged an Australian gunslinger during the 1850s goldrush.

Mrs Cunningham’s daughter, Cierra Anderson, said her family had not received any assistance from the Australian government. “We’ve asked, and asked, and gotten nowhere,” she said.

As an Australian citizen, Mrs Cunningham would appear to be eligible for up to $500,000 in legal-fee funding from the Overseas Criminal Matters Scheme, which provides funds to Australians facing the death penalty.

Sanaa Cunningham.

The scheme has provided funding for legal help for ­accused drug trafficker, Cassie Sainsbury, convicted drug trafficker Schapelle Corby, accused terrorist David Hicks, and two members of the Bali Nine, ­Andrew Chan and Myuran ­Sukumaran.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was approached for comment but was unable to respond before deadline.

While Mrs Cunningham’s passport is believed to have expired, she remains an Australian citizen. Prosecutors raised her citizenship when opposing bail.

The Cunninghams are prevented by a gag order from speaking publicly, but have told police they took their daughter to hospital on February 11 last year, after she fell into a deep “sighing” sleep. She died the following day.

No charges were laid for 10 months, while police investigated the case. An autopsy conducted in October 2017 found that Sanaa died from sepsis related to complications from bronchitis and pneumonia. It did not declare Sanaa to be a victim of homicide.

Pathologists found “extensive scarring, marks, scrapes, scratches, bruises and open wounds … found on every plane of (the) victim’s body” but could not say how she received the injuries. The Cunninghams argue that Sanaa injured herself whilst thrashing. After a 10-month investigation by police, a grand jury in Maricopa County last December indicted the Cunninghams on 10 charges of child abuse and one of first-­degree murder. They were immediately released on bail, with ankle bracelets and a curfew.

 

The case took a dramatic turn 10 days ago, when prosecutors told the court they would seek the death penalty for the couple. After a two-day hearing, Maricopa County Superior Court judge Michael Kemp declared himself convinced there were grounds to pursue a capital case. The state revoked the couple’s bail, and they are now in protective custody.

Prosecutors intend to introduce as evidence videos of Sanaa in the final weeks of her life, including one from the day before she died that showed her ­“despondent, drooling, breathing abnormally and not responding to (her father’s) commands”, ­according to a police report.

The couple say they took the video to demonstrate the effect of the antipsychotic drug Risperidone (sold in the US as Risperdal) that Sanaa was taking. ­The ­Cunninghams say they were encouraged by the state to put Sanaa on the drug, and had been threatening to sue the state for ordering them to administer the drug.

Risperidone is rarely prescribed for children. Side effects include self-­injury, mood changes and drowsiness.

Arizona has formally been a death-row state since 1976. The method employed is lethal injection, although inmates can request gas. Thirty-seven men but no women have been put to death in the state since 1976, almost all for the crime of murder.

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said DFAT was “providing consular assistance to an Australian in the United States, in accordance with the Consular Services Charter. For privacy reasons we are unable to provide further details.”