Left to right: Joshua and Rachel Piland (Lansing Police Department).
A Michigan couple dedicated to the supernatural concept of religious faith-healing will now be spending at least 20 years behind bars for the preventable death of their newborn daughter Abigail, who was only 61 hours old.
In late March, Rachel Piland, 38, and Joshua Piland, 44, were convicted by a jury on counts of murder in the second degree and child abuse in the first degree. On Wednesday, Ingham County Circuit Judge James Jamo sentenced the couple to a minimum of 20 years in prison.
“This was a very difficult and long case,” Ingham County Deputy Chief Assistant Prosecutor Bill Crino said in March. “Throughout, we have tried to use Abigail Piland’s life as a lighthouse to guide us through the many complex legal and factual issues that were presented.”
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Late on Feb. 6, 2017, Abigail was born at the family’s home in Lansing with the help of a midwife, as Law&Crime previously reported. She died on Feb. 9, 2017, after the midwife noticed the girl was jaundiced and recommended a hospital visit, which the parents declined. Rachel Piland’s mother was also there for the baby’s birth – her attempt at a medical intervention was dismissed by the couple as well.
That hospital visit, however, likely would have saved her life.
Abigail died from a rare condition known as Rh disease or Rh incompatibility, a rare form of anemia. The condition — essentially blood incompatibility between mother and child — could have easily been treated if Rachel Piland had obtained a necessary prenatal injection. Even after she was born, doctors could have saved her life.
But the couple’s faith precluded medical treatment.
When the Pilands were warned about Abigail’s impending death, Rachel Piland told a midwife, “God makes no mistakes,” according to the Michigan Free Press. The couple was initially charged with involuntary manslaughter over their refusal to seek medical attention for the newborn. Those words to the midwife were later relayed to a detective, noting that the couple believed in the “power of prayer.”
Their charges were later upgraded.
During a trial spanning several days, jurors heard how the couple prayed over the child’s dead body instead of calling 911, according to the Lansing State Journal. Law enforcement only made their way to the residence some nine hours later, after being called by a family member who lives in California.
And in court, the couple did not waver.
“We believed (praying) was the best thing we could possibly do for her,” Rachel Piland testified. “Even if she had died from some kind of struggle, we wouldn’t have called 911.”
The state countered that personal health care decisions are not the same as taking care of children, who must be kept safe.
Defense attorneys tried a different path. They argued the couple put their daughter in a sunlit window to help her jaundice and tried to do what they could on their own before she died.
The prosecution also made hay of the Pilands’ behavior with their children after Abigail, as Law&Crime previously reported. The couple had two additional children who suffered from Rh incompatibility. Again, the couple refused medical treatment. In the subsequent cases, however, the children survived after being taken into custody by the state and receiving the necessary treatment.
“They adamantly failed to provide medical care without even consulting someone,” Crino told the judge Wednesday.
During separate hearings, the judge sentenced each parent to 20 to 45 years behind bars for the murder charge and just shy of 19 to 45 years behind bars for the child abuse charge. The sentences will run concurrently, meaning they will be served at the same time.
During sentencing, Rachel Piland addressed the court through tears, insisting she and her husband love their children.
“My husband and I believe the very best thing we can do is seek healing from Jesus Christ,” the condemned woman said.
