COURT UPHOLDS MURDER VERDICT IN STILLBIRTH CASE

A Cocaine-Addicted Woman Was Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison in S.
Carolina for Homicide by Child Abuse.

WASHINGTON - A South Carolina woman sentenced to 12 years in prison
for homicide as a result of suffering a stillbirth has lost a bid to
reverse her conviction.

In a one-line order issued Monday, the US Supreme Court let stand a
South Carolina Supreme Court decision upholding her conviction for
homicide by child abuse. The woman in question had used cocaine during
her pregnancy.

The case is important because it opens the door to making a large
number of women in South Carolina who suffer a stillbirth potential
murder suspects, legal analysts say. The list of potential suspects
could include not just drug addicts but users of tobacco, alcohol, and
coffee, and maybe even those who endure unhealthful conditions in the
workplace, analysts say.

"It is clearly going to reach a lot wider than just individuals who
are addicted to drugs," says William McColl, director of national
affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance. "People should be wary. If you
take a drink or if you smoke [and later suffer a stillbirth], women
are going to become murder suspects."

While most states have laws to prosecute someone who kills a viable
fetus, South Carolina is the only state in the nation with a homicide
statute tied to stillbirth.

South Carolina officials defend the prosecution and the state law as
an attempt to deter pregnant women from engaging in risky behavior.

Regina McKnight, a homeless drug addict with an IQ of 72, was
convicted of committing "homicide by child abuse" after hospital
workers detected cocaine in her system shortly after she gave birth to
a stillborn girl in 1999.

South Carolina law defines a viable fetus as a "person." At 8-1/2
months, Ms. McKnight's stillborn daughter was considered a person
under state law, and McKnight was charged with homicide for causing
the death by ingesting cocaine while pregnant.

Lawyers for McKnight say she was grief-stricken by the stillbirth of
the daughter she intended to name Mercedes. They say McKnight was
addicted to cocaine and that there were no drug-treatment options
available to her. In addition, they say McKnight suffered from two
medical conditions which, independent of the cocaine use, could have
caused the stillbirth.

"There is no evidence that she knew cocaine use could endanger her
pregnancy, and yet the state Supreme Court upheld her homicide
conviction, and the US Supreme Court has refused to review that," says
Jennifer Brown, legal director of NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund
in New York. "This has to be terrifying to a large swath of women, not
just those who abuse cocaine."

South Carolina prosecutors say the law is clear, and establishes a
deterrent to behavior that might threaten unborn children. They say
anyone who causes the death of a viable fetus may be prosecuted for
homicide and face up to life in prison.

A jury convicted McKnight, and her conviction was upheld by the South
Carolina Supreme Court.

South Carolina also has an abortion law to prosecute a woman's
intentional termination of pregnancy after fetal viability. But that
offense is classified as a misdemeanor punishable by up to two years
in prison. In contrast, the state's homicide statute - used to
prosecute McKnight - carries a punishment of 20 years to life in
prison. The judge in McKnight's case suspended eight years of her
20-year sentence.