Lee's story is as much about contravening society's expectations of women in post war Australia, as it is about one woman's criminality. The book is the result of nine years of painstaking research, drawing on a vast array of sources. In this case the High Court considered the admissibility of improperly obtained confessional evidence, following an unprecedented and never repeated appeal by the Crown against a decision, by the Victorian Appeals Court to grant a retrial. In the final chapter, Gallows Time , the authors describe institutionalised murder, or state sanctioned execution, in its full horror. They give details about the position of the knot and how long it takes to die if the job is botched.
Many questions remain, the authors say.
Other women committed equally heinous crimes yet many had their executions commuted to life sentences. Decades later, Lindy Chamberlain, another woman who was judged harshly for failing to conform to society's expectations, may well have been a statistic of the gallows, if capital punishment still existed in this country. A subsequent pardon would have been small comfort in her case. There are many in the community who call for a reintroduction of capital punishment. This excellent book illustrates very forcefully the arbitrary nature of such a penalty.