South Australian Lisa Cunningham on capital murder charge released from US jail
South Australian Lisa Cunningham will still face trial over the death of her seven-year-old stepdaughter Sanaa Cunningham, but the prosecution in the US is no longer seeking the death penalty.
An Australian woman who had been facing a first-degree murder charge in the US has been released from an Arizona prison, seven years after being taken into custody.
Lisa Cunningham, 51, who was raised in South Australia but moved to the US after marrying an American serviceman, was charged in 2018 with the murder of her stepdaughter, seven-year-old Sanaa Cunningham.
First-degree murder is a capital offence in Arizona, and Ms Cunningham was believed to be the only Australian woman facing a possible death penalty in the US.
The child died in hospital on Sunday, February 12, 2017, with a septic wound on her foot, and zip-tie wounds on her wrists.
Child safety officers say she had been tortured by her father, Germayne Cunningham, and by Ms Cunningham, who became the child’s stepmother upon her marriage to Germayne.
The couple said they restrained the child to control violent behaviour, and blamed her death on drugs prescribed to control her violent moods.
The couple were charged with first-degree murder in 2018, and have been held in separate prisons ever since. The case was the subject of an investigation by The Australian.
Ms Cunningham’s lawyer Eric Kessler told Fox in the US on Wednesday (AEDT) that the Australian government has been assisting Ms Cunningham with her defence.
“Lisa, being an Australian citizen, has received a lot of help from the Australian government from their state department,” he said.
“They are just as flummoxed as the defence and all of our experts. There is certainly no crime here, much less a murder.”
The case took a sudden turn earlier this year, when a Maricopa County judge was told that prosecutors were no longer seeking the death penalty.
The judge on Wednesday afternoon (AEDT) ordered the release of both Cunninghams, on a $1m bond, ahead of their trial in July. The Cunninghams have agreed to electronic monitoring, while on release. They were released because the trial will no longer be a capital murder case.
Mr Cunningham was formerly a detective with the Phoenix police department, and Ms Cunningham was formerly a prison officer.
The child’s biological mother, Silvia Norwood, believes her daughter was neglected and abused by the couple.
Ms Cunningham has said that she sometimes zip-tied Sanaa to stop her from pulling out her hair, and scratching her siblings. Sanaa was also made to wear goggles to stop her scratching at her own eyes. She would eat dirt and hair, and regularly soiled herself.
Ms Cunningham’s eldest daughter Cierra Anderson, 20, told The Australian in 2019: “They never would hurt Sanaa. But then they took them into custody and now the state wants to kill them. I am in shock.”
Ms Cunningham told the court at earlier hearing that Sanaa suffered from a range of extremely serious mental, behavioural and physical health problems, including schizophrenia.
Hegseth fires US admiral at NATO
Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield is the latest in a string of senior officers to be dismissed by Donald Trump’s administration, part of a rare major shake-up of top US military leadership that began shortly after the president returned to office in January.
US stocks jump as White House flags it’s open to tariff negotiations
Wall Street stocks surged higher early Tuesday as global markets rallied following deep losses in hopes of trade agreements that would remove US President Trump’s heavy tariffs.