Supreme Court appeal in child’s meningitis death could be dismissed from bench
CALGARY, AB. — Lawyers say just because parents convicted in the meningitis death of their toddler are taking their case to the Supreme Court that doesn’t mean they will get the privilege of a long deliberation.
Lisa Silver, law professor at the University of Calgary, said the couple can automatically appeal to Canada’s top court because the three-member Alberta Court of Appeal wasn’t unanimous in a recent decision upholding the conviction.
David Stephan and his wife, Collet, were found guilty last year of failing to provide the necessaries of life in their son Ezekiel’s 2012 death.
The trial in Lethbridge, Alta., heard the Stephans treated the 19-month-old boy with garlic, onion and horseradish rather than taking him to a doctor. They eventually called 911 but the little boy died in hospital.