Heather Osland wins legal fight

A BENDIGO woman jailed for killing her abusive husband has won another round in her fight for access to documents explaining why she was refused a pardon.Heather Osland, who spent nine-and-a-half years in jail after being convicted of murdering her violent husband Frank in 1991 and is on parole until July, submitted a petition for mercy in 1999.Two years later, State Attorney General Rob Hulls denied the petition and since then, Ms Osland has been fighting to gain access to confidential documents outlining the reasons why.Shortly after learning her application had been refused, she lodged an application to access the documents, 263 pages, under freedom of information laws.The Government gave her the first and last page. They contained no information.The case has been before the court multiple times in the past decade.On Friday, the 63-year-old appeared briefly before Chief Justice French and Justice Kiefel in the High Court in Melbourne where she won leave to appeal a previous decision banning her from viewing confidential documents outlining why her application for a pardon was refused.Her appeal will be listed to be heard before a full bench of High Court judges in April.Ms Osland said access to the documents would end 30 years of injustice.“It’s been a long, hard, emotional road,” she said.“When you live in a situation of domestic violence, you’re worthless. This made me feel like I’m still worthless.”During her trial, the court heard Ms Osland had suffered 13 years of physical, sexual and emotional abuse at the hands of her husband.Yesterday, she said all she wanted was justice.“Stalking laws have changed, domestic violence laws have changed, homicide laws have changed around my case, yet they left me in prison for the next four-and-a-half-years plus the five years out on parole,” Ms Osland said.“To read the documents and to find out why they didn’t allow me to go home will be closure.“It’s been a terrible time, not just for me, but for my family, my grandchildren.“It was a terrible, emotional time for us, hoping and believing, because for two years we had been told that they would release me and I’d be able to go home.“Every day I would wake up thinking that they were going to grant the pardon and I would be able to go home.”Ms Osland’s long-time solicitor Nieva Connell said she was hopeful the documents would be made available by the time Ms Osland’s parole finished in July.She said the appeal would most likely go before the full bench of the High Court in April.