Georgia Supreme Court upholds Atlanta vegan couple's life sentences in death of baby

The Georgia Supreme Court has unanimously rejected the appeal of an Atlanta vegan couple who was sentenced to life in prison for the starvation death of their 6-week-old son. Prosecutors said the baby, who weighed just under four pounds when the first-time parents ultimately took him to the hospital, was fed a diet of soy milk and apple juice. Writes the court's public information officer (Warning: The summary is graphic):

Jade Sanders and Lamont Thomas, who subscribed to the vegan lifestyle of eating no animal products, were living at the Darlington Apartments in Buckhead when Jade gave birth to their son, Crown Shakur, according to briefs filed in the case. They chose to have the baby at home in a bathtub with no medical assistance. In April 2004, when Crown was 6 weeks old, they rushed him to Piedmont Hospital after he began having trouble breathing. Hospital personnel attempted to resuscitate him but after 30 minutes declared the baby had been dead on arrival. He was visibly emaciated, weighing just 3 and ½ pounds. He was dirty and wearing a diaper with dried excrement in it. Doctors pronounced the cause of death as bronchopneumonia due to extreme malnourishment or starvation. According to medical testimony, the baby had no subcutaneous fat and the process of cannibalization by his own body had led to his death. He had no ability to fight infections because of his advanced state of malnourishment which led to the pneumonia that killed him. Police became involved, and a search of the couple’s apartment revealed a soy milk bottle, an apple juice bottle and a baby bottle that was caked with debris and had a rancid smell.

According to the State, the baby’s diet consisted only of soy milk and apple juice. In May 2007, the couple was tried together, and a Fulton County jury found Sanders and Thomas guilty of malice murder for failing to seek medical attention for their son and “involuntary manslaughter during the commission of reckless conduct” for depriving him of sustenance. They were also found guilty of felony murder during the commission of cruelty to a child. Following a new trial, the trial court threw out Sanders’ malice murder conviction due to her attorney’s
ineffectiveness and entered a new judgment only on felony murder. Sanders and Thomas were both sentenced to life in prison.

In her appeal to this court, Sanders argued the circumstantial evidence was insufficient to support the verdicts against her and prove the required intent. Thomas argued his trial attorney was ineffective for failing to call an expert on cystic fibrosis to support the defense’s theory that the baby’s pneumonia was due to cystic fibrosis which has similar symptoms to starvation.

But in today’s opinion, written by Presiding Justice George Carley, the high court has rejected their arguments. “Reviewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdicts, we conclude that it was sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find beyond a reasonable doubt that both Appellants were guilty of the crimes for which they were convicted,” the opinion says.

Here's Carley's full opinion, which is a difficult read.