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 Stupid isn't reserved for Religious nutbags... |  ATLANTA -- A vegan couple were sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for the death of their malnourished 6-week-old baby boy, who was fed a diet largely consisting of soy milk and apple juice.
Superior Court Judge L.A. McConnell imposed the mandatory sentences on Jade Sanders, 27, and Lamont Thomas, 31. Their son, Crown Shakur, weighed just 3 1/2 pounds when he died of starvation on April 25, 2004.
The couple were found guilty May 2 of malice murder, felony murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children. A jury deliberated about seven hours before returning the guilty verdicts.
Defense lawyers said the first-time parents did the best they could while adhering to the lifestyle of vegans, who typically use no animal products. They said Sanders and Thomas did not realize the baby, who was born at home, was in danger until minutes before he died.
But prosecutors said the couple intentionally neglected their child and refused to take him to the doctor even as the baby's body wasted away.
"No matter how many times they want to say, 'We're vegans, we're vegetarians,' that's not the issue in this case," said prosecutor Chuck Boring. "The child died because he was not fed. Period."
Although the life sentences were automatic, Sanders and Thomas begged for leniency before sentencing. Sanders urged the judge to look past his "perception" of the couple.
"I loved my son -- and I did not starve him," she said.
When the judge told the defendants they could ask for a new trial, Thomas hung his head low.
"I'm dying every day in there," he said, "and that could take three years."
http://www.newsday.com/news/health/sns-ap-vegans-baby-death,0,3678364.story?coll=ny-leadhealthnews-headlines
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I think the life sentences where a bit harsh, but damn....how about feeding your son breastmilk you silly fuck? What did you expect the outcome to be when you where thinking "Oh no mothers milk is animal protein and my son can't have that!".
To compound the fuckup they never called a doctor. If the mother couldn't breastfeed him for some reason (and there is no reports on this)Â there would be ample reason to consult with a medical professional, even more so when you have absolutely no experience in this matter yourself - being a first time parent.
If anything this case proves that stupid isn't just reserved for religious nutbags...these two morons should automatically win a Darwin award.
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| Comments |
on May 10 2007 15:02:31
In my opinion, the fact that the "'We're vegans, we're vegetarians" quote kept popping up and just the nature of their offence (be that by stupidity or not), tells me, that these people think of veganism/vegetarianism, in a very similar to a religion.
I'm just mortified at what people are doing to each other because of certain fixations and ideas. |
on May 10 2007 15:16:20
I think you're correct on the veganism religion. Fanatics fuck the world up. |
on May 10 2007 20:21:09
I've seen this popping up all over news sites the last couple of days. That probably wouldn't have happened if the couple weren't vegan. I'm not really sure why vegans need to be vilified like this; this issue clearly has nothing to do with the parents being vegans (fanatic or not) and everything to do with the parents being stupid.
Can anyone else tell me why vegans are vilified?
Oh, and I really think the front page part of the news item could be smaller (Goes for other ppl's news too). |
on May 10 2007 22:19:18
Touching a nerve are we? The news item's since is a few paragraphs to get the gist of the story and as for vilified...Do you think that everybody who is caught doing crystal meth with a gay hooker ends up in the news? Or just people like Rev. Haggard... |
on May 10 2007 22:19:41
picky picky... |
on May 10 2007 23:00:43
I'm all for public punishment, like stoning and pillory (gabestok) !  |
on May 10 2007 23:09:16
Why wait for them to do the crime. Let's just behead all the vegans as a preemtive strike. |
on May 11 2007 00:13:37
Yes, you're touching a nerve. Not my vegetarian nerve, even though that was what you were aiming for. Children are killed all the time, on purpose or because of negligence. That never reached the front page. But when a vegan couple kill a baby it does. Even though they didn't kill it because they were vegans, but because they were stupid. Next we'll probably find out that they're *gasp* atheists, and then we'll really know they're evil!
My question was simply, why are you vilifying a group of people who more than any base their life choices on compassion? Why do people like our own resident Grumpy vilify people like atheists, who base their life choices on reason?
And what has this to do with Haggard? Any vilification that evil bastard receives is well deserved. Seriously.
As for the frontpage it's just annoying that one story hogs all the space. Practically all the story was on the front page; you have to be able to do better than that. |
on May 11 2007 00:38:02
Seriously, dude
Take a deep breath, count to 10 or whatever, and chill the fuck down. |
on May 11 2007 01:38:19
Yeah, I'm not upset. At all. Maybe you're reading me wrong. Try reading my post again in a calm, considerate voice. Maybe I should litter my posts with more smileys or something.
I was throwing up a ball and seeing if someone would run with it, or if maybe everone would just pretend it wasn't there. It's really starting to get annoying to have someone tell me I'm upset and I should chill down every time I write a post. Ad hominem FTL! Seriously. |
on May 11 2007 03:06:30
@vuzman
The reason why, I think, this story makes the news, is because most people think vegans are weird. In general, there is little understanding for why they choose not to eat _any_ animal products of any kind. From Notting Hill we all remembered the line: "so these carrots have been....?" "murdered, yes." - an exaggerated joke on vegetarians' behalf. It was very funny because most people aren't vegetarians.
Anyways, that is "most people" and doesn't in any way apply to gongumenn. On this site, all of us understand the reasons for being a vegan or vegetarian. We also understand that murdering your baby doesn't make vegans, atheists or christians evil - only individuals stupid. Norlander understands this quite well; you have only to read the headline once more.
What is interesting nonetheless, is how vigorously you proclaim this to be some sort of organized effort to hate vegans. You have in the past taken the actions of some religous wackjob and presented them as evidence to support your claim that religion is evil and should be eradicated. Here we have a wholly different issue where you claim that the evil actions of some vegans are being used to support the claim that veganism is bad. I find both arguments to be faulty, as I believe that individuals say very little about an entire religion or veganism. The proper conclusion is, that there are evil religous cocksuckers, and there are evil vegan cocksuckers - it is about individual stupidity and nothing else. However, if you happen to believe that an evil minister supports the claim that religion is evil, then it's hypocritical to completely reject this story as anti-veganism propaganda. |
on May 11 2007 08:16:21
I want one of those Ad hominem FTL drives, they sound cool 
And Vuzman, claiming ad hominem only works if I was debating the issue. I wasn't. |
on May 11 2007 10:31:51
@Grizlas
The Notting Hill joke was on the expense of fruitarians, who don't eat anything but fruit that has actually fallen to the ground. Ripping a vegetable up from the ground would not be considered murder; they don't have any moral objections to it, but then, that's the joke. Your point stands though.
I didn't claim (vigorously or not) that there was an organized effort to hate vegans. I'm just pointing out that it seems strange to bestow so much effort on vilifying a group that (as you said) is so relatively unknown. This also goes for atheists (mainly in the US, but apparently also in FO), which is why I dragged them into the discussion as a simile.
I don't know why you insist on bringing evil into this discussion. We were talking about stupid. Killing a baby because you're feeding it wrong isn't evil, it's stupid. Rev. Haggard spouting radical homophobia from his pulpit is evil on the other hand, since he must know about gay-bashings and killings (He's also destroying people's lives, but one might argue that his intention was to try to save those people and therefore not evil. We're back to stupid). The fact that he was with a drug-dealing gay hooker is just ironic and funny, and really hasn't got anything to do with him being evil or not.
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@Torellion
Well, you're trying to put me down while I'm in a discussion in a discussion thread. I'm pretty sure that qualifies as ad hominem. Either way, it doesn't make it less annoying.
The ad hominem FTL drive would disturb the time-space continuum, so I don't think that's a good idea. |
on May 11 2007 13:14:46
This particular news-item, would definetely not be getting this much attention from the Gongumenn's (at least not from me), if these particular stupid f***'s hadn't used their veganism as defence for their actions in court.
@Vuzman: Read the news articles at the various news agencies. The parents specificaly used their veganism as grounds for their choises regarding the food (or in this case, the lack of!) for their baby, who, incidentaly, was "born at home". This tells me, that these people are "whack-jobs" first, and stupid second. They tried to use the fact of their veganism as defence for their choise of actions towards their baby.
My involvement in this thread is not good Vs. evil, but geared towards fanaticism. These people let their fanaticism kill their newborn baby, pure and simple.
Whether or not we then can start drawing comparison between fanaticism/stupidity is another subject.
P.S. I resent the implication that any Gongumaður can be grumpy! |
on May 11 2007 16:19:44
Even fanatic vegans (should) have no objections against breast-feeding. There is specific soy-based milk for babies. The milk they used was regular "grown-up" milk, and the carton even had a warning against feeding it to babies.
If they were trying to be fanatic, they failed miserably because of their stupidity. |
on May 11 2007 21:28:43
Yep, stupid is what stupid does |
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