The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday the homicide conviction of a married couple in 2008 for praying for their dying daughter rather than seek medical treatment will stand.
Kara Neumann, 11, of Weston, Wis., died March 23, 2008 from complications of untreated juvenile onset diabetes.
"Kara had been showing symptoms of exhaustion and dehydration for more than a week, but her parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, refused to take her to a pediatrician, and decided to respond to her illness with prayer, not medicine," NBC News reports.
The Neumanns told the Supreme Court that their convictions were unconstitutional because of the state's law that allows residents to pursue "treatment through prayer." NBC News reports the couple argued Kara's symptoms were hard to identify, and "they had no way to know when their prayer decision crossed the line into crime."
Supreme Court disagreed with the Neumann's and upheld their sentences, which has each of them to serving a month in jail every year for six years and 10 years' probation, according to NBC News.
"If we were to adopt the parents' reasoning, no prayer-treating parent would know what point is beyond 'a substantial risk of death' until the child actually stopped breathing and died," Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson wrote.
During the homicide trial, officials testified that Kara's disease was treatable and that her chances of survival were high, even if she had been treated the day of her death, according to NBC News.
The Neumanns reportedly identify themselves as Pentecostals, and believed that prayer and strong religious belief can cure all illnesses. NBC News reports the couple asked others to pray for her daughter on a Christian listserv with the subject line "Help our daughter needs emergency prayer!!!"
"We need agreement in prayer over our youngest daughter, who is very weak and pale at the moment with hardly any strength," the message said.
According to reports, the next day, which happened to be Easter Sunday, at least two family friends called 911 to check up on Kara. Paramedics found the little girl with no pulse, and the hospital failed to revive her.
"Dale Neumann testified that he knew Kara was sick but never thought she might die," NBC news reports. "In fact, he testified that he thought that Jesus would bring her back from the dead, as he did with Lazarus in the Gospel of John."
