Robert Latimer Robert Latimer was born March 13, 1953, and was a Canadian canola and wheat farmer near Wilkie, Saskatchewan, where he lived with his wife Laura, and their four kids. On October 24, 1993 Latimer was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of his daughter Tracy Latimer. Latimer was released on day parole in March 2008 and was granted full parole. Robert Latimer was not a quiet man in his youth. He went to lots of parties and, smoked lots of marijuana. He got into trouble a few times with the law over these things. Then he married Laura, settled down and took over his father's farm. Tracy was their first child (later they had three more) and Robert and Laura suffered for twelve years to make some sort of life for her. Tracy Latimer was born November 23, 1980. Tracy was born with cerebral palsy. (The medical definition for cerebral palsy is damage to the center that controls the brain, but in Tracy’s case it was the lack of oxygen to the brain during birth.) For Tracy this later lead to severe mental and physical disabilities including seizures that were only to be controlled with medication. She could not walk, talk, or feed herself. It was said that Tracy was in constant pain. She could not take any pain medications other than Tylenol due to stomach bleeding, constipation, and aspiration pneumonia. On October 24, 1993 Laura Latimer found Tracy dead. She had died under the care of her father while the rest of the family was at church. At first Robert had said that Tracy had died in her sleep; however the autopsy evidence showed high levels of carbon monoxide in Tracy’s blood. Robert later confessed that he had put her in his truck and hooked up a hose from the trucks exhaust pipe to the cab. He had also confessed that he had planned to kill her by overdosing her with Valium or “shooting her in the head”. Robert said his actions were motivated by the love for Tracy and a desire to end her pain. Latimer was charged with first-degree murder but, convicted of second-degree murder by the jury. He was sentenced to life in prison with no possible parole for ten years. Latimer’s lawyer argued that the sentence of ten years was “cruel and unusual punishment”. Latimer began serving his sentence in January 18th, 2001 and was imprisoned at William Head Institution. While in prison he completed his first year of carpentry and electrician apprenticeships. He also ran his farm with the help of a manager. When he got out he requested that he be moved to Victoria BC where he would live in a halfway house five days a week and, an apartment two days a week. Latimer was eligible for full day parole in December 2010.