Hotel mix-up could overturn mushroom murderer's conviction

In the aftermath of one of Australia's most closely watched murder trials, a shortage of hotel rooms during a regional table tennis tournament has become the unlikely fulcrum of a legal appeal. Erin Patterson, convicted of killing three people by serving them poisoned mushrooms in 2023, now has her lawyers arguing before Victoria's Court of Appeal that the jury's sequestration was fatally compromised when they shared accommodation with the lead detective and prosecution solicitors. The case raises an enduring question in the philosophy of justice: whether the appearance of fairness carries the