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Court Says No Free Exercise Problem In Homicide Charges Against Parents

By Howard M. Friedman

In Wausau, Wisconsin, a trial court judge ruled Monday that Dale and Leilani Neumann's free exercise and due process rights are not violated by prosecuting them for reckless homicide. AP reports that the parents are charged with praying for the recovery of their 11-year old daughter instead of getting her medical assistance as required by law. She died of untreated diabetes. The court's opinion stated that the parents' "right to transfer religious belief into conduct must yield to neutral, generally applied criminal statutes designed to protect public safety." The court ruled, however, that if it is shown that the parents "genuinely believed that prayer alone would save their daughter and that she was in no danger of dying without medical care, then they could not be found criminally negligent." The court also ruled that the exclusion of treatment by prayer from the state's child abuse statute did not preclude fair notice to the parents that the homicide law could still cover their behavior.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on December 03, 2008 (boomark / email).