ATTLEBORO, Mass. -- A former religious cult leader from Massachusetts convicted of first-degree murder for starving his infant son to death is making a bid for a new trial.
Jacques Robidoux (ROH'-bih-doh) has been granted a post-conviction hearing in federal court.
His appeals attorney tells Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly that she plans to argue that the 36-year-old Robidoux was not competent at the time of his 2002 trial and that he should have been evaluated. No date for the hearing has been scheduled.
Robidoux was one of the leaders of a small Attleboro-based cult called The Body. He was charged with murder after his son, Samuel, died days before his first birthday in April 1999.
Robidoux said he and his wife believed they were following a message from God by denying the boy solid food.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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