Fourth District Judge Claudia Laycock - who on Jan. 6 gave the 30-year-old mother of four a week to prepare for prison - declined to extend the release pending a Feb. 3 hearing on an appeal.

In October, a jury convicted Killpack of second-degree felony child-abuse homicide for the June 9, 2002, death of Cassandra Killpack. The girl's adoptive father, Richard Killpack, was acquitted of the charge.

The girl died after Jennete Killpack forced her to drink at least four quarts of water. The water caused the girl's sodium levels to drop, which caused her brain to swell to fatal proportions.

The Killpacks claimed the forced-water treatment was part of their efforts to get the girl to bond with her adoptive mother. The Killpacks claimed the girl suffered from reactive attachment disorder and had severe behavioral problems.

Prosecutors claimed the water treatment was part of ongoing abuse and they introduced evidence suggesting the mother had, on prior occasions, bitten, choked and struck the girl with a spoon.

Defense attorney Michael Esplin said he will claim on appeal that the judge improperly allowed introduction of those prior bad acts.

He will also challenge a video-taped interview by police of Cassandra's older sister, as well as the judge's reliance on what Esplin claims was a flawed pre-sentence report.

Additionally, Esplin said, he wanted jurors to be able to consider what he called the "Parker Jensen law," which allows parents to seek reasonable alternatives to medical treatment for their children.

In 2003, 12-year-old Parker Jensen's parents decided against chemotherapy for what doctors had diagnosed as a rare form of cancer. The case drew national attention and led to flurry of parental rights bills on Utah's Capitol Hill. Two bills strengthening parental rights became law last year.

Esplin claims the Killpacks were simply exercising their parental rights when they chose forced water and other treatments over drugs and psychiatry.

Esplin said he will also mount a first-time challenge to Utah's child-abuse homicide statute. The homicide law, he said, employs the same standard of conduct as the child abuse statute.

The child abuse statute cites reckless conduct likely to result in serious physical injury. The only difference in the homicide law is that a child dies as a result of the injury.

"We are saying you need to show a higher standard - that Jennete knew or should have known her conduct would likely result in death, not just serious bodily injury," Esplin said.

He claims the Killpacks had no idea that drinking too much water could result in death.

For Killpack to be released from custody pending her appeal, the judge must find she is not a flight risk, not a danger to the community and that her appeal has a reasonable likelihood of success.