A Clackamas County judge sentenced the couple

to more than six years in prison, rejecting their entreaties for mercy and saying their son's fate could have been easily avoided.

A jury in September

, of the Followers of Christ church, guilty in the death of their son, David Hickman, who lived for less than nine hours. He was born approximately two months premature and weighed less than four pounds.

After standing and hugging each other, both Hickmans were led out of the courtroom in handcuffs as supporters sobbed. Close to 100 people packed Judge Robert Herndon's courtroom, nearly all of them believers in the Followers of Christ church, an Oregon City congregation that shuns medicine in favor of faith-healing and has a lengthy history of child deaths. About 30 more supporters milled outside the room.

The Hickmans were sentenced to 75 months in prison, the mandatory minimum under Measure 11 sentencing guidelines. Herndon also gave them three years of probation.

Herndon's tone, which steered clear of harshest admonishment, almost contrasted with the sentence he doled out, the longest ever given to a Followers of Christ couple for failing to seek medical care for a child.

"As the evidence unfolded and the witnesses testified, it became evident to me and certainly to the jury … that this death just simply did not need to occur," said Herndon, referencing that the jury had come back with a verdict in a "stunningly" short time.

Defense attorneys pleaded for leniency under a Measure 11 religious exemption statute that would have allowed the judge to avoid giving the mandatory minimum, but Herndon rejected the notion that this case qualified. The exemption was eliminated by the legislature after the Hickmans' indictment.

The sentence, Herndon said, was a "modest penalty" for causing an avoidable death.

He insisted he didn't need to castigate the church, but said their beliefs were simply wrong.

At one point, he expressed surprise at how little one of the congregation’s midwives had known about premature births when she testified. He seemed to know about premature births more than she did, he said. “She’s one of the most dangerous people in Clackamas County,” Herndon said.

Before the sentencing, both parents tearfully asked Herndon for mercy, especially for their seven-year-old child and a baby born after their son's death.

Shannon Hickman mentioned she spent "24 hours a day" with her children, and Dale Hickman asked the court to have mercy on his wife.

"We are willing to do anything that the court sees fit," Dale Hickman said, adding that the couple had been honest during the trial, despite the prosecution's insistence that they had lied under oath.

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Prosecutor Mike Regan took a hard line on the couple, seeking a maximum of six years. He hammered on both the Hickmans and the church, saying the couple continually resisted negotiations with prosecutors because “they did not think they did anything wrong.”

Regan railed at the version of events presented by defense during the trial, when they argued the couple knew nothing was wrong until about fifteen minutes before his death. “Are these an arrogant and stubborn group of martyrs with no contrition whatsoever?” he asked.

A message needed to be sent to the church, Regan said. Child abuse for any motive, he said, is still child abuse.

“These generally are good, decent, law-abiding folks, except in this one narrow area of their lives,” Regan said. “One (area) where they have told us stubbornly – and arrogantly, if I may – that ‘We are not going to change.’”

“The law of civil society demands that they change,” he continued. “It demands that we sent a message to all of them that whether you believe this or not in Oregon, you cannot act upon that belief.”

Regan said he was loathe to use the cliché of asking the judge to “send a message,” but said he thought it was necessary. Using an exaggerated analogy of a pagan group that sacrifices children in the woods, he asked Herndon how the effect of that groups differs from the situation at hand.

“The only thing different in the effect is that we have a religious group sacrificing children’s lives, year after year, decade after decade,” he said. “In order to stop that effect, we have to do something.”

The Hickmans were the fourth couple from the church to stand trial in the past three years for refusing to get medicine for a sick child.

Timothy and Rebecca Wyland, who were

, supported the Hickmans at the courthouse on Monday. Carl Brent Worthington, who was

, also sat in the courtroom. Jeffrey and Marci Beagley were sentenced to 16 months of prison after being found guilty of criminally negligent homicide.

Dale Hickmans' defense attorney, Mark Cogan, pushed for probation, saying the Hickmans would be compliant with any court orders for medical care. The couple has already taken their two remaining children to see a pediatrician, Cogan noted.

"These are not criminals," Cogan said.

He characterized a six-year sentence as cruel. “The penalty, the punishment that the government is urging is severe, and would inflict cruel consequences,” on the couple, he said.

Both Cogan and John Neidig, Shannon Hickman's attorney, mentioned the couple's remaining children. “As a parent, I can’t even imagine getting up this morning, taking my seven-year-old to school, kissing her goodbye, and having the possibility of not seeing her or holding her in my arms again until she’s a teenager,” Cogan said.

Dale Hickman and Neidig seemed to ask the judge for even more special consideration for Shannon Hickman. Neidig, her attorney, said she did not have as many chances to call for help: in their church, the decisions are made by the husband.

"That is a function of their religion, a religious practice," Neidig insisted. "The husband is the head of the household, like Christ is the head of the church."

Allowing probation would be a chance to acquaint the couple with medicine, Neidig said, and also said a few Followers had already inquired about medical treatment after the verdict. "It has already had an impact on a few that I know of," he said.

Check back later for updates.

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