Numerous grounds for appeal

Here is a good post mortem on the Leilani Neumann guilty verdict in the Wausau Daily Herald:

A district appeals court is likely to hear the case next. Defense attorney Gene Linehan said he will argue that Neumann's conviction should be overturned because Marathon County Circuit Court Judge Vincent Howard refused to allow a faith-healing expert to testify at trial.

Linehan told a judge on May 13 that Thurman Scrivner, a Texas pastor, would testify that faith healing is a legitimate way that people of faith cure illness.

Behold Scrivner's webpage: Supernatural Divine Healing Ministry.

I think this character would have been pretty tough to qualify as an expert witness. Although he probably would have been fun to cross examine, considering how legitimate and effective "faith healing" was in this case, where the subject was not cured but died.

Except the prosecutors managed to successfully demonstrate Thurman Scrivner's complete and utter irrelevance in advance.

Leilani Neumann's husband Dale, who is scheduled to go on trial for the same offense in July, may be having second thoughts about continuing to maintain his innocence in light of yesterday's result, a possibility the judge alluded to in court yesterday, and which suggestion apparently did not please Dale Neumann's attorney.

See also: Rambo accused of unlawful phone use.

Faith in the news

Testimony from the trial of Leilani Neumann, the Marathon County woman whose delusional beliefs include that physical illnesses are either the result of "sin" or else a "test" from "the Lord."

Neumann is charged with second degree reckless homicide for relying on prayer to cure her 11-year-old daughter of diabetes, the symptoms of which were evident for weeks — if not months — before the child died. She also believed prayer would bring the dead child back to life.

"Because God created everyone, and how can we be more powerful than God?" Leilani Neumann's other daughter testified. "He is all control. That is what we believe. We go to him with our problems because he is the one orchestrating everything. Why should we diss him and think a doctor would be more powerful than God or trust a doctor more than God?"

These people have obviously learned nothing, and according to this testimony, they would cause another death, given the opportunity.

Convicted mom is defiant, accusatory

This trial did not afford the opportunity to tell our side of the story. Every story has two sides. We did not enjoy the liberties of due process.

Yet Leilani Neumann decided — or at least participated in the decision — to neither testify nor to call any witnesses in her defense.

I didn't realize it would be a crime to pray for my daughter. I didn't realize the medical experts for the prosecution would consider me a medical expert concerning my daughter's condition. I have never read a medical book, I do not watch TV, and therefore have never seen a medical show. I do not know what a coma is, nor was I saying this word.

"The real issue is our government is anti-God."

This doesn't exactly come across like the statement of a person who understands the nature of the charge brought against them.

More:

Leilani's stepfather says he's not happy with how the investigation and trial was handled, and the family plans on filing a legal action against the prosecution and judge.

That could mean a couple of things. They've fired their attorney, and/or they're going to be preparing one of those crazy Posse Comitatus-style lawsuits, the scourge of Wisconsin prosecutors.

The latter would resonate perfectly with the "No King But Jesus" tenor of Leilani Neumann's written statement released today.

Nothing fails like prayer

From a Weston, WI police department case activity report:

Randall Wormgoor ... became involved in what he described as a bible study group with the Neumanns which was held at the Monkey Mo Coffee Shop on Monday evenings. Mr. Wormgoor said that along with he and his wife were approximately five other people along with the Neumanns involved in this bible study group.

Randall Wormgoor said that one of the things that did concern him that was mentioned at the bible studies by Dale Neumann who led those bible studies is that Mr. Neumann stated that physical illness in an individual was due to sin and the only way to cure that illness was to ask for forgiveness and to pray that God would cure you from that illness.

Both Randall and Althea Wormgoor said that it was obvious that the Neumanns had no intention of seeking medical help for their daughter and that this was a test of faith for the Neumanns and that through prayer Kara would be healed.

Rather than seek medical attention, the Neumanns solicited, via e-mail, additional prayers from the god fearing individuals at an online "ministry" called AmericasLastDays.com. Those prayers, intoned via return e-mail, also failed spectacularly. And tragically.

Kara Neumann, age 11, died March 23 after slipping into a diabetic coma following her noticeably suffering from the affliction for at least three weeks. Kara's parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, are charged with second-degree reckless homicide, party to a crime.

AmericasLastDays.com calls these penultimate Last Days the Neumanns' "time of persecution by the world."

For now, its only their time of prosecution by Marathon County.

Stand back, kitchen sink coming through

Why people detest lawyers, Reason #4,986,210:

Defense attorney Jay Kronenwetter told jurors the efforts of the ambulance attendants or doctors who eventually cared for 11-year-old Kara Neumann might have caused her death.

Trial of "full-Gospel Christian" underway in Wausau — JSOnline.com

Compare with the Wausau Daily Herald, more bluntly:

The defense attorney told a jury this morning that doctors’ treatment plans for the girl would likely have killed her.

Big difference.

Earlier: Leilani Neumann.

They chose to rely on prayer

Killed by religion:*

Leilani Neumann noticed that her daughter was very tired, but nobody believed she was suffering from a serious illness.

Yet they did believe the child, who died two days later, was "under spiritual attack" and medicine would "be taking the glory from God."

Certification by Wisconsin Court of Appeals (and acceptance).

* Or alternatively, libertarianism.

Prayer death

Nice headline. The prayers didn't cause the death; the prayers, like the goggles, they did nothing. That's the (totally unsurprising) point.

Marathon County District Attorney Jill Falstad described Leilani Neumann as a religious zealot who let her daughter, known by the nickname Kara, die as a test of faith.

There appear to be some strenuous objections to the State's characterization of the defendant as a religious extremist.

But when your 11-year-old daughter is suffering from a fatal disease, and instead of seeking medical attention you e-mail some fruitcakes at AmericasLastDays.com for prayers, I reckon that counts.

This time it'll work for sure

Before the start of the trial Monday, Leilani Neumann read from her Bible and circled the defense and prosecution tables several times in prayer.

"They didn't stop praying until supper time."

What an appalling tale.

Earlier: AmericasLastDays.com

Hot debate? Just get rid of it.

The following complete defense to felony child abuse appears in the current edition (2007-08 [A.D.]) of the Wisconsin statutes:

A person is not guilty of an offense under this section solely because he or she provides a child with treatment by spiritual means through prayer alone for healing in accordance with the religious method of healing permitted under s. 48.981(3)(c)4. or 448.03(6) in lieu of medical or surgical treatment.

The latter citations make reference to the exercise of so-called "Christian Science" which, under the present circumstances, is breathtakingly oxymoronic in the worst possible sense of the term.

They should be gotten rid of as well. Or else expand their language to include "Zoroastrian Necromancy" and whatever other phantasies.

The exemption applies to, among other crimes, "intentionally caus[ing] great bodily harm to a child." In other words, one may intentionally cause great bodily harm to a child and not be held accountable for that harm simply because they were "praying."

Those of us familiar with the expression "Nothing fails like prayer" might be surprised to learn that one of prayer's most formidable successes is its insulating perpetrators of intentional child abuse from criminal prosecution in the State of Wisconsin.

But I expect few voters would attribute that purpose to prayer, including most of those who are inclined to testify to its efficacy.

According to this report from WBAY, there is to be a "hot debate" in the Wisconsin legislature over this provision in the wake of the cases of Leilani and Dale Neumann. They consulted an online "faith healer" rather than submit their 11-year-old daughter for medical attention while during the course of several weeks the child became grievously sick, lapsed into a diabetic coma, and died, all before their eyes.

I can't imagine* what the "hot debate" will concern.

This might be the 21st century, but it's not the 21st century B.C.

* Meaning, of course I can imagine the imaginings. They're actually memorialized in and given binding effect by the Wisconsin statutes.