Wisconsin Supreme Court upholds reckless homicide conviction of parents who prayed instead of seeking medical treatment.

Dale and Leilani Neumann's daughter Madeline died of diabetes 5 years ago. They were convicted in 2009, sentenced to 180 days in jail, but the sentences have not yet been served.

In the majority opinion, the justices noted the 1987 law that protects faith healing states that a person is not guilty of an offense because he or she provides a child with treatment by spiritual means through prayer alone.

But the justices agreed with the prosecutor that the treatment through prayer provision applies only to charges of criminal child abuse and does not create a blanket protection from criminal prosecution for a parent....

Here's the opinion, written by Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson. Justice David T. Prosser Jr. dissented:

The Neumanns claim that the reckless homicide statute is too murky to give sufficient notice as to when parental choice of treatment through prayer becomes illegal.  Given the nature of Kara's illness, as well as the imprecision in the statutory language, I agree.  There is a due process problem here.  On the facts before us, the statutes are very difficult to understand and almost impossible to explain.  Indeed, the statutory scheme is so difficult to explain that if a prayer-treating parent were to consult an attorney on how he or she could prayer treat and stay within the bounds of the law, virtually any attorney would be at a loss to reasonably advise the client.  The concerns stated would not have been so pronounced if the Neumanns had been prosecuted under the child neglect statute....