Court lowers sentence for Danish nurse over patient deaths

COPENHAGEN – A Danish appeals court on Thursday reduced the sentence of a nurse convicted of killing three elderly patients, saying it was not clear she intended them to die.

The Eastern High Court on Wednesday reduced Christina Hansen’s sentence to 12 years in prison from life, saying it cannot be proven that she gave overdoses of morphine and strong sedatives to three elderly patients in 2012 and 2015 with the intention to kill them. It added the causes of death cannot be “clearly stated.”

In June, Hansen was convicted of murdering the three patients and attempting to kill a fourth at a hospital in southern Denmark. The sentence usually means 16 years in prison.

Hansen has denied any wrongdoing since she was arrested March 1, 2015.