Australia
Prosecutor tells appeals court mushroom poisoning murderer should never be released
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Triple-murderer Erin Patterson should never be released from prison after she poisoned four of her estranged husband’s relatives with death cap mushrooms, a prosecutor told an Australian court on Thursday.
Prosecutor Brendan Kissane told three judges of the Victoria state Court of Appeal that a judgment that Patterson must serve 33 years of a life sentence before she can apply for parole was “manifestly inadequate,” in an appeal on the leniency of her sentence.
Kissane said Patterson should never be considered for parole but that if the judges did not agree, then they should impose a nonparole period longer than 33 years.
“That’s a harsh submission to make,” Kissane said of removing any possibility of parole.
“But … it’s demanded by the nature of the offending,” he added.
Patterson on Wednesday began her appeal against convictions on three counts of murder and one of attempted murder relating to a lunch of beef Wellington pastries she prepared at her rural home in Leongatha in July 2023.
Few Australian prisoners are sentenced without prospect of release on parole.
The judges reserved their decisions on both appeals until a date to be set.
Kissane said the 51-year-old would be around 82 years old before she could be considered for release under her current sentence.
Because of her notoriety, Patterson is held in the high-security Gordon Unit of Melbourne’s Dame Phyllis Frost Centre women’s prison. The unit is for prisoners assessed as being at high risk from other inmates.
In sentencing her in September last year, trial judge Christopher Bale said there was a “substantial chance” that Patterson could be held in “solitary confinement for years to come.”
Kissane argued that the judge’s conclusion was not supported by evidence and that Patterson’s prison conditions were reviewed every month.
Her lawyer, Richard Edney, said Patterson was being held in solitary confinement as defined by the United Nations — confinement for 22 hours or more a day without meaningful human contact.
Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon Patterson, was invited to the fatal lunch but did not attend.
His parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, died. Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, spent weeks in hospital, but survived.
Patterson argued during her trial that the poisoning was an accident.
Kissane described Patterson’s crimes as “pitiless behavior” and “truly dreadful.”
Prosecution court documents said “there is no factually comparable case to this.”
But they submitted that Melbourne man Osman Shaptafaj was set a nonparole period of 35 years in 2022 for murdering his own daughter and her husband, partly because he was not invited to their wedding.
They also submitted that Melbourne man Jaymes Todd was set a nonparole period of 43 years in 2019 for the rape and murder of comedian Eurydice Dixon in a city park.
Under state law, a judge must set a nonparole period for murder unless that judge considers the nature of the offense or the past history of the offender makes such a minimum sentence inappropriate.
Earlier on Thursday, prosecutor Jeremy McWilliams rejected Patterson’s lawyers’ argument that her five days of cross-examination during her trial had been “unfair and oppressive.” It was one of Patterson’s grounds for appeal against convictions.
Her cross-examination by prosecutor Nanette Rogers had been “thorough, fair and conducted in accordance with settled principles and the prosecutor’s overarching duty of fairness,” McWilliams said.
Patterson’s trial lawyer Colin Mandy had described his client in his closing address as a “pedantic witness,” McWilliams said, adding Rogers had been required to rephrase questions to “receive a responsive answer.”
In pretrial testimony only made public after her trial, Simon Patterson said he suspected his wife had deliberately made him seriously ill with dishes. No poisons were ever found.
Erin Patterson was initially charged with three counts of attempting to murder him three times between November 2021 and September 2022. She had denied all charges.
Prosecutors dropped all charges relating to the husband before her trial began in April 2025.
Louisiana
Court order gives players signed by NFL teams a shot at returning to college sports
Several athletes, including some who signed contracts with NFL teams, were granted a temporary restraining order by a Louisiana court that would make them eligible to return to college athletics, ESPN reported Wednesday.
Former Oregon State running back Anthony Hankerson (Seattle Seahawks), former Florida and LSU pass rusher Jack Pyburn (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and ex-Mississippi starters Dae’Quan Wright (Cleveland Browns) and Wydett Williams (Arizona Cardinals) are on NFL rosters and were part of the lawsuit.
NFL teams are deep into training camp, and rosters have to be cut to 53 players by Aug. 30. Many who don’t make those clubs could look for a fallback plan in college football, barring a successful appeal by the NCAA.
According to ESPN, 16 football players were part of the lawsuit that included 33 athletes across several sports who are seeking a fifth year of eligibility.
The NCAA has been dealt a series of legal setbacks regarding its eligibility rules.
“Courts across the country granting relief to ineligible athletes who already had every opportunity to compete in college — sometimes without even having a hearing — are failing to appreciate the destabilizing effect their rulings are having on college sports,” Tim Buckley, NCAA senior vice president of external affairs, said in a statement.
“The lawyers bringing these cases seemingly won’t be satisfied until every professional athlete can treat college sports as a fallback option, regardless of the opportunities it strips from those who will never have a chance to begin their collegiate sports experience.”
On July 31, a federal court in Denver ruled that all high school class of 2022 athletes who exhausted their fourth season of college eligibility this spring are eligible for a fifth season this academic year.
That decision came a little more than a month after the NCAA passed a rule that gives athletes five years to complete five seasons of competition, starting with those who enroll in the fall of 2027. The Colorado ruling eliminated the waiting period.
Washington
Woman accused of plotting to kill Treasury Secretary is sentenced to 6 years in prison
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Massachusetts woman who told police that she brought homemade firebombs to the U.S. Capitol to kill Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was sentenced on Tuesday to just over six years in prison.
Riley English, a 26-year-old transgender woman, said she was in the grips of a mental health crisis and abusing drugs when she drove to Washington in January 2025 and told Capitol police that she was there to kill Bessent on the day of his Senate confirmation.
“I never wanted to hurt anyone,” she told U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras. “I’m not a political person. I’m not a violent person.”
Contreras, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, sentenced English to six years and one month of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release. English has remained jailed since her arrest and will get credit for the nearly 20 months that she already has spent in custody. She pleaded guilty in March to two weapons charges.
“You’ve had a very difficult life,” Contreras told English. “Hopefully, the progress you’ve made in jail to this date has set you on the right path.”
Nobody was injured, and Contreras said her plan to harm Bessent had an “exceedingly low or non-existent” chance of success. Bessent wasn’t at the Capitol when English arrived on Jan. 27, 2025. The Molotov cocktails that English brought to the Capitol appeared to be incapable of igniting, the judge noted.
Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of 10 years and one month for English. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan Horan said English had been planning the “attempted political assassination” for at least a month at a time when the threat of politically motivated violence has been mounting in the U.S.
“This was not a chance encounter or an impulsive act,” Horan said.
The case against English fits a pattern of politically motivated violence that has plagued the U.S. over the past decade. In a letter addressed to the judge, Bessent said he worries the country “cannot survive this assault.”
“Political violence is an attack on the rule of law and on representative government itself,” Bessent wrote. “It also deprives our country of service by talented men and women with ability and integrity who may reasonably decide that no job is worth threats to themselves and their families.”
English’s prosecution drew comparisons to the case against California resident Sophie Roske, who was sentenced last October to over eight years in prison for attempting to assassinate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh at his Maryland home. Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of no less than 30 years for Roske, a transgender woman. They appealed Roske’s sentence by U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman, calling it unreasonably lenient.
Defense attorney Maria Jacob said English was “terrified and traumatized” by fears of what would happen to transgender people under the second Trump administration.
“Our argument is that she was in a diminished mental state,” Jacob said.
Investigators said they found a folding knife, two homemade firebombs and a lighter in English’s possession at the Capitol.
English, of South Deerfield, Massachusetts, told police that she was influenced by Luigi Mangione, the man who was charged with fatally shooting the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. She said she was “on a mission” and “had been thinking about this for a while because of Luigi Mangione,” prosecutors said. English told officers that she was terminally ill and “wanted to do something before I go,” according to prosecutors.
English also said she traveled from Massachusetts to Washington intending to kill other Republican political figures — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and House Speaker Mike Johnson — and to burn down the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, according to police. English changed her target to Bessent after reading an internet post about his confirmation hearing, police said.
Jacob said English’s actions last year were “a cry for help.”
“There was no indication that she was acting rationally that day,” the judge said.
Prosecutor tells appeals court mushroom poisoning murderer should never be released
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Triple-murderer Erin Patterson should never be released from prison after she poisoned four of her estranged husband’s relatives with death cap mushrooms, a prosecutor told an Australian court on Thursday.
Prosecutor Brendan Kissane told three judges of the Victoria state Court of Appeal that a judgment that Patterson must serve 33 years of a life sentence before she can apply for parole was “manifestly inadequate,” in an appeal on the leniency of her sentence.
Kissane said Patterson should never be considered for parole but that if the judges did not agree, then they should impose a nonparole period longer than 33 years.
“That’s a harsh submission to make,” Kissane said of removing any possibility of parole.
“But … it’s demanded by the nature of the offending,” he added.
Patterson on Wednesday began her appeal against convictions on three counts of murder and one of attempted murder relating to a lunch of beef Wellington pastries she prepared at her rural home in Leongatha in July 2023.
Few Australian prisoners are sentenced without prospect of release on parole.
The judges reserved their decisions on both appeals until a date to be set.
Kissane said the 51-year-old would be around 82 years old before she could be considered for release under her current sentence.
Because of her notoriety, Patterson is held in the high-security Gordon Unit of Melbourne’s Dame Phyllis Frost Centre women’s prison. The unit is for prisoners assessed as being at high risk from other inmates.
In sentencing her in September last year, trial judge Christopher Bale said there was a “substantial chance” that Patterson could be held in “solitary confinement for years to come.”
Kissane argued that the judge’s conclusion was not supported by evidence and that Patterson’s prison conditions were reviewed every month.
Her lawyer, Richard Edney, said Patterson was being held in solitary confinement as defined by the United Nations — confinement for 22 hours or more a day without meaningful human contact.
Patterson’s estranged husband, Simon Patterson, was invited to the fatal lunch but did not attend.
His parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, died. Heather’s husband, Ian Wilkinson, spent weeks in hospital, but survived.
Patterson argued during her trial that the poisoning was an accident.
Kissane described Patterson’s crimes as “pitiless behavior” and “truly dreadful.”
Prosecution court documents said “there is no factually comparable case to this.”
But they submitted that Melbourne man Osman Shaptafaj was set a nonparole period of 35 years in 2022 for murdering his own daughter and her husband, partly because he was not invited to their wedding.
They also submitted that Melbourne man Jaymes Todd was set a nonparole period of 43 years in 2019 for the rape and murder of comedian Eurydice Dixon in a city park.
Under state law, a judge must set a nonparole period for murder unless that judge considers the nature of the offense or the past history of the offender makes such a minimum sentence inappropriate.
Earlier on Thursday, prosecutor Jeremy McWilliams rejected Patterson’s lawyers’ argument that her five days of cross-examination during her trial had been “unfair and oppressive.” It was one of Patterson’s grounds for appeal against convictions.
Her cross-examination by prosecutor Nanette Rogers had been “thorough, fair and conducted in accordance with settled principles and the prosecutor’s overarching duty of fairness,” McWilliams said.
Patterson’s trial lawyer Colin Mandy had described his client in his closing address as a “pedantic witness,” McWilliams said, adding Rogers had been required to rephrase questions to “receive a responsive answer.”
In pretrial testimony only made public after her trial, Simon Patterson said he suspected his wife had deliberately made him seriously ill with dishes. No poisons were ever found.
Erin Patterson was initially charged with three counts of attempting to murder him three times between November 2021 and September 2022. She had denied all charges.
Prosecutors dropped all charges relating to the husband before her trial began in April 2025.
Louisiana
Court order gives players signed by NFL teams a shot at returning to college sports
Several athletes, including some who signed contracts with NFL teams, were granted a temporary restraining order by a Louisiana court that would make them eligible to return to college athletics, ESPN reported Wednesday.
Former Oregon State running back Anthony Hankerson (Seattle Seahawks), former Florida and LSU pass rusher Jack Pyburn (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and ex-Mississippi starters Dae’Quan Wright (Cleveland Browns) and Wydett Williams (Arizona Cardinals) are on NFL rosters and were part of the lawsuit.
NFL teams are deep into training camp, and rosters have to be cut to 53 players by Aug. 30. Many who don’t make those clubs could look for a fallback plan in college football, barring a successful appeal by the NCAA.
According to ESPN, 16 football players were part of the lawsuit that included 33 athletes across several sports who are seeking a fifth year of eligibility.
The NCAA has been dealt a series of legal setbacks regarding its eligibility rules.
“Courts across the country granting relief to ineligible athletes who already had every opportunity to compete in college — sometimes without even having a hearing — are failing to appreciate the destabilizing effect their rulings are having on college sports,” Tim Buckley, NCAA senior vice president of external affairs, said in a statement.
“The lawyers bringing these cases seemingly won’t be satisfied until every professional athlete can treat college sports as a fallback option, regardless of the opportunities it strips from those who will never have a chance to begin their collegiate sports experience.”
On July 31, a federal court in Denver ruled that all high school class of 2022 athletes who exhausted their fourth season of college eligibility this spring are eligible for a fifth season this academic year.
That decision came a little more than a month after the NCAA passed a rule that gives athletes five years to complete five seasons of competition, starting with those who enroll in the fall of 2027. The Colorado ruling eliminated the waiting period.
Washington
Woman accused of plotting to kill Treasury Secretary is sentenced to 6 years in prison
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Massachusetts woman who told police that she brought homemade firebombs to the U.S. Capitol to kill Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was sentenced on Tuesday to just over six years in prison.
Riley English, a 26-year-old transgender woman, said she was in the grips of a mental health crisis and abusing drugs when she drove to Washington in January 2025 and told Capitol police that she was there to kill Bessent on the day of his Senate confirmation.
“I never wanted to hurt anyone,” she told U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras. “I’m not a political person. I’m not a violent person.”
Contreras, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, sentenced English to six years and one month of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release. English has remained jailed since her arrest and will get credit for the nearly 20 months that she already has spent in custody. She pleaded guilty in March to two weapons charges.
“You’ve had a very difficult life,” Contreras told English. “Hopefully, the progress you’ve made in jail to this date has set you on the right path.”
Nobody was injured, and Contreras said her plan to harm Bessent had an “exceedingly low or non-existent” chance of success. Bessent wasn’t at the Capitol when English arrived on Jan. 27, 2025. The Molotov cocktails that English brought to the Capitol appeared to be incapable of igniting, the judge noted.
Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of 10 years and one month for English. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan Horan said English had been planning the “attempted political assassination” for at least a month at a time when the threat of politically motivated violence has been mounting in the U.S.
“This was not a chance encounter or an impulsive act,” Horan said.
The case against English fits a pattern of politically motivated violence that has plagued the U.S. over the past decade. In a letter addressed to the judge, Bessent said he worries the country “cannot survive this assault.”
“Political violence is an attack on the rule of law and on representative government itself,” Bessent wrote. “It also deprives our country of service by talented men and women with ability and integrity who may reasonably decide that no job is worth threats to themselves and their families.”
English’s prosecution drew comparisons to the case against California resident Sophie Roske, who was sentenced last October to over eight years in prison for attempting to assassinate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh at his Maryland home. Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of no less than 30 years for Roske, a transgender woman. They appealed Roske’s sentence by U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman, calling it unreasonably lenient.
Defense attorney Maria Jacob said English was “terrified and traumatized” by fears of what would happen to transgender people under the second Trump administration.
“Our argument is that she was in a diminished mental state,” Jacob said.
Investigators said they found a folding knife, two homemade firebombs and a lighter in English’s possession at the Capitol.
English, of South Deerfield, Massachusetts, told police that she was influenced by Luigi Mangione, the man who was charged with fatally shooting the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. She said she was “on a mission” and “had been thinking about this for a while because of Luigi Mangione,” prosecutors said. English told officers that she was terminally ill and “wanted to do something before I go,” according to prosecutors.
English also said she traveled from Massachusetts to Washington intending to kill other Republican political figures — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and House Speaker Mike Johnson — and to burn down the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, according to police. English changed her target to Bessent after reading an internet post about his confirmation hearing, police said.
Jacob said English’s actions last year were “a cry for help.”
“There was no indication that she was acting rationally that day,” the judge said.
