The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday unanimously upheld murder convictions against an Atlanta couple who allowed their 6-week-old baby to starve to death.
Jade Sanders and Lamont Thomas, both vegans, were convicted in 2007 by a Fulton County jury. Living in the Darlington Apartments, they chose to have their son, Crown Shakur, born in a bathtub with no medical aid.
When they took the infant to nearby Piedmont Hospital on April 24, 2005, the baby was emaciated, weighing 3 1/2 pounds. He died of extreme malnourishment. Police said his diet consisted of only soy milk and apple juice.
At the time of the convictions, it was the first known verdict of its kind in Georgia.
A New York jury had convicted a vegan couple on murder charges in the death of their child. But a Florida jury was more lenient, acquitting vegan parents of murder and instead convicting them on reduced charges of involuntary manslaughter, an unintentional death. In that case, the couple had successfully raised two children as vegans, but their third child died.
Sanders initially told police she fed her baby organic apple juice and soy milk. But the soy milk containers in her Buckhead apartment clearly state that soy milk is not to be used as a substitute for baby formula, her lawyer admitted.
At trial, Saunders said she also fed her son breast milk and soy milk formula.
When the verdicts were announced, Thomas buried his face in his hands at the defense table.
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