U.S. Supreme Court

MCKNIGHT FILES PETITION TO HAVE CASE OVERTURNED

COLUMBIA - An Horry County woman convicted of killing her fetus by using
cocaine wants the nation's top court to decide her controversial case.

Regina McKnight filed a petition Tuesday with the U.S. Supreme Court asking
the nine justices to overturn a January ruling by the S.C. Supreme Court.
The state's top court upheld her 2001 conviction.

"South Carolina alone has said that a woman who has suffered a stillbirth
can be treated as a depraved-heart murderer, despite the fact that a
majority of South Carolinians believe that treatment is the proper response
to drug problems," said Lynn Paltrow of New York, one of McKnight's lawyers.

The odds are long that the U.S. Supreme Court will accept McKnight's case.
The court receives more than 7,000 petitions per term, and it hears about
100 cases.

McKnight is serving a 12-year prison sentence - the stiffest penalty, her
lawyers say, for any S.C. woman convicted of harming her unborn child.

McKnight was charged with homicide by child abuse after she gave birth to a
stillborn, 5-pound girl May 15, 1999. The baby's age was estimated at
between 34 and 37 weeks.

McKnight's first trial, in January 2001, ended in a mistrial. Four months
later, a jury convicted her after deliberating for about 15 minutes.

In a 3-2 vote, the S.C. Supreme Court said in January that there was
"sufficient evidence" to convict McKnight. The majority of justices upheld
an earlier ruling that said a fetus that can survive outside the womb is a
person under state child abuse and neglect laws.

More than 70 women have been prosecuted statewide since 1989 for using
drugs while they were pregnant, said Paltrow, executive director of
National Advocates for Pregnant Women.

Studies show a greater correlation between stillbirths and smoking during
pregnancy than with cocaine use, Paltrow said.

McKnight's lawyers contend the state Supreme Court's ruling will lead to
the prosecution of women who could harm their fetuses by smoking, drinking
or taking prescription drugs. Her petition to the U.S. Supreme Court cites
public comments to that effect by Horry County prosecutors.

Prosecutors couldn't be reached Tuesday.