The court maintained the sentence of White, 35-year-old Kristian James Samuel, an ex-cop. This decision comes on the heels of a widely condemned incident with a 95-year-old woman in a South Carolina nursing home. On May 17, 2023, Shireen White answered an emergency call to Yallambee Lodge aged care centre in Cooma, southern New South Wales. There, he met Clare Nowland, a 95-year-old elderly woman with dementia.
The entire encounter took two minutes, 40 seconds. During that time, the very prompt White drew his stun gun and pointed it at Nowland. According to reports, he waited several seconds before firing the gun. He then said, “Nah, bugger it,” and shot the Taser into her heart. Things became dire when Nowland fell and struck her head during the exchange. She never regained consciousness and remained in the hospital. Tragically, she passed a week later from a fatal brain bleed.
After the incident went viral, White was on trial at the New South Wales Supreme Court. In a criminal trial, the court found him not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter. In March of this year, that man was sentenced to two years good behavior bond. On top of that, he was ordered to do community service. It’s possible that prosecutors were disappointed with the leniency of the sentence. They quickly cross-appealed, demanding that severe prison time be imposed on White for his misconduct.
White’s barrister, Troy Edwards SC, countered the prosecution’s appeal by asserting that general deterrence should not factor into the sentencing decision. This reasoning signified that White’s acts were not part of a larger pattern of wrongdoing warranting a custodial sentence.
The case received national outcry and ignited discussions regarding police accountability. Three judges from the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal heard the Director of Public Prosecutions’ appeal against her acquittal. Otherwise, they affirmed the original sentence and denied the appeal for a stiffer punishment.
