When Dale and Shannon Hickman appear for sentencing Monday morning, Clackamas County prosecutors will ask the judge to send the Oregon City couple to prison for more than six years.

A jury unanimously convicted the Hickmans of second-degree manslaughter in September for failing to seek medical care for their fragile newborn son.

David Hickman was born two months prematurely in 2009 and lived less than nine hours. Pediatric experts testified that the baby had a 99.9 percent chance of surviving if he had been taken to a hospital. But as members of the Followers of Christ, an Oregon City faith-healing congregation, the Hickmans and their relatives have never gone to doctors and generally refuse to seek medical care for their children. They say God will decide whether a person lives or dies and a doctor won't alter the outcome.

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The Hickmans' attorneys will seek probation. They note that the couple, both 26, are law-abiding parents of two young children and cooperated with the investigation.

Prosecutors said that imposing the maximum sentence will send a strong message to Followers who rigidly refuse to address their children's medical needs. The defense said the church was not convicted of a crime. Judges, however, often say that the sentences they impose are intended to have a deterrent effect on the community.

The Followers have a long history of children dying from treatable medical conditions, and Oregon has a history of granting legal protections to faith healers. But because of a recent change in state law, the Hickmans will probably be the last Oregon parents to receive special consideration and possibly avoid Oregon's mandatory sentencing law, Measure 11.

Second-degree manslaughter is a Class B felony that requires a sentence of at least six years and three months in prison under Measure 11. However, because of a religious exemption that was eliminated after the Hickmans were indicted, Presiding Judge Robert D. Herndon could depart from Measure 11 and impose a lesser sentence if he finds "substantial and compelling reasons" to do so. Herndon could opt for probation or a 16- to 18-month prison term.

Herndon would have to find that the Hickmans did not cause the illness that killed the baby and that they relied solely on spiritual treatment based on their religious practices and a good-faith belief that spiritual treatment would heal the child.

Prosecutors say the Hickmans don't qualify for a lesser punishment.

They noted that throughout the trial the couple "asserted their failure to seek medical care was not motivated by religious faith. "Ironically, both defendants seek a reduction in sentence founded upon a legal theory they wholly rejected at trial."

Defense attorneys disputed the states' conclusions. The Hickmans did not cause David to be born prematurely and believed spiritual treatment would save him.

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