Sally Clark should have been an anonymous commercial solicitor in Manchester living with her large family in a detached house in a smart Cheshire village. But her life became defined by the death of her two baby sons and her unjust conviction and jailing for their murders.

Not only was Clark exonerated and her convictions quashed, but the main evidence against her was discredited and two other women were cleared of similar charges as a result of her case. It also led to the Attorney-General ordering a review of hundreds of other cases.

But away from the legal ramifications of the Sally Clark case was a mother whose two babies had died suddenly and who was then labelled a child killer and sent to prison.

Some people who have suffered injustice and tragedy find relief in the passage of time or through telling their stories. But Clark’s nightmare stayed as vividly with her as during the darkest hours, leading her husband to declare 18 months after her release from prison that she was still not well “and will never be well again”.

Not only did she fail to find catharsis in the book of her story, Stolen Innocence: A Mother’s Fight for Justice, but she could not bear to read it.

Sally Lockyer was born in Devizes, Wiltshire, in 1964. She was the only child of a senior policeman and a hairdresser. She was educated at South Wiltshire Grammar School for Girls in Salisbury and then studied geography at Southampton University. After her degree she began working for Lloyds Bank in London as a graduate trainee and in 1988 moved to Citibank where she met Steve Clark, a lawyer.

They were married in 1990 and three years later moved to Manchester where Clark, who had decided to study law, joined a firm as an assistant solicitor. The couple moved into a house in Wilmslow, Cheshire, with a view to having a large family and had a son, Christopher, who was born in September 1996.

In early December the baby became briefly ill with breathing difficulties and a nosebleed while the family where on a visit to London. About a week later Christopher became unconscious after an evening feed while his father was out. The baby was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

In November 1997 the Clarks had their second son, Harry, who was premature but seemed healthy. Two months later Clark found her baby unconscious and he was taken to hospital and pronounced dead.

In February 1998 the Clarks were arrested on suspicion of murder and five months later Sally Clark was charged with the murder of her sons. The Crown Prosecution Service decided to take no action against her husband. Later that year Clark gave birth to her third son.

She was committed for trial, which began at Chester Crown Court in October 1999. The following month she was convicted of both murders and given two life sentences. She had admitted during the trial drinking to excess out of loneliness after her move to Cheshire and having sought medical help for depression after the death of her first son. This led the prosecution to label her a depressive alcoholic She maintained her innocence and the case went to appeal, but the convictions and sentences were confirmed in October 2000.

Her legal team and her husband continued investigating and found a medical report that indicated that Harry had had an early form of meningitis. In 2002 the case was referred back to the Appeal Court and in January 2003, Clark’s convictions were quashed.

Her husband had sold their Cheshire home to help to pay for legal fees and moved to Essex, near to where she was serving her sentences. On her release Clark tried to return to some form of normal life with her husband and son but the pain of the 11 years, especially the experience of jail, where she suffered harassment from other prisoners, seemed to have blighted her life.

She is survived by her husband, Steve, and son.

Sally Clark, solicitor, was born in August 1964. She died on March 15, 2007, aged 42