CALGARY -- Jeromie and Jennifer Clark's appeal of their 32-month sentences in connection with the death of their 14-month-old son has been dismissed.
Both parents were convicted of criminal negligence causing death in 2018 in connection with the 2013 death.
The child died from an infection that was initially treated with remedies the couple found on the internet. By the time the parents took the ill child to the hospital, it was too late for medical intervention.
The Clarks were sentenced to 32 months in prison in June 2019.
The sentencing judge said the Clarks did not deliberately harm their child but were 'misguided and tragically misinformed'. During the trial, the parents argued that their son died as a result of negligent medical treatment.
The Clarks launched an appeal of their sentences, claiming the trial judge's consideration of sentences from other cases — including the Tamara Lovett case from 2017 —to determine a sentencing range for them should have been scrapped in favour of a 'principled determination of sentencing' weighing their moral culpability, the gravity of the offences and other mitigating factors.
The presiding judges of the Court of Appeal of Alberta determined the trial judge's use of the Lovett case as a sentencing starting point was justified and their sentences were neither demonstrably unfit nor based on an error in principle.
The couple previously filed an appeal of their convictions that also proved unsuccessful.
