(AP) - A Tazewell County judge has denied a request for a new trial from a woman convicted in the suffocation death of her autistic 3-year old daughter.

Judge Stuart Borden was not swayed by lawyers for Karen McCarron, who argued that her trial attorney was not effective. They contend the attorney should have let McCarron explain that she killed the girl because she suffered from - what they called - "a religious delusion" that the child would rise from the dead without autism.

Borden ruled last week that there's no evidence the attorney was ineffective. He also dismissed claims that the trial attorney was impaired by alcohol, calling that - in the judge's words - "completely spurious."

McCarron is serving a 36-year prison term. She suffocated Katie McCarron with a plastic bag in May 2006.