ABSTRACT
There has been a lot of publicity recently about several women in the United Kingdom who were convicted of killing their own children after each of these mothers had two or more of their infants die in succession and under suspicious circumstances. (A few of these convictions were later overturned on appeal.) The prosecutor's argument and a much discussed opinion of a crucial expert witness in all these court cases relied mainly on medical evidence but probabilistic reasoning also played a (minor) role.
