FREE REGINA MCKNIGHT

Regina McKnight is the only woman in America serving time for murder for
having a stillborn child while she was a cocaine user. South Carolina is
the only state in the union that will allow such a severe charge to be
pressed against so-called "crack moms," but that might be changing.

Arguments were heard by the S.C. Supreme Court earlier this month that
would overturn the law. We hope the justices will decide that South
Carolina's law isn't ahead of its time, but a bad piece of legislation that
needs to be struck down.

McKnight, who was convicted last year and sentenced to 12 years in prison,
gave birth to a dead baby girl who tested positive for a cocaine
by-product. No other cause of death was entertained. Assuming that cocaine
killed Baby McKnight, however, there is a question whether her mother knew
there was a correlation between drug abuse and fetal viability. As Supreme
Court Chief Justice Jean Toal said, "You've got to show some proof this
uneducated homeless person knew taking cocaine while she was pregnant would
harm her baby."

Further, it's important to recognize that McKnight did not use drugs out of
choice, but because she was addicted. That fact seems to have escaped Greg
Hembree, the assistant state attorney who prosecuted McKnight last year.

In an interview prior to the Supreme Court hearing, he said she willfully
killed her baby "because of her selfishness or her own personal desires."

Interestingly, defenders of the law say it is a powerful tool for getting
addicted women into treatment. It seems they are talking out of both sides
of their mouths.

It has been well documented that other behavior during pregnancy, including
smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol, is also harmful to the unborn. In
fact, a study earlier this year in the Journal of the American Medical
Association stated that cocaine use is about as harmful as smoking
cigarettes and less harmful than heavy drinking. However, there's no law
preventing pregnant women from indulging their "personal desires" for a
pack of Marlboro or a six-pack of beer. The sight of a heavily pregnant
woman sucking on a cigarette is, unfortunately, all too common.

The fact that McKnight was engaging in an unlawful activity prejudices many
people against her. But suppose a baby had been born dead after the mother
was in a car accident in which she had not worn her seat belt. That's
against the law, too. Should she be charged with murder?

The "crack mom" laws have been a hobby horse for outgoing Attorney General
Charlie Condon to ride for most of his time in office, both in Columbia and
previously as a solicitor in Charleston. Wyndi Anderson, executive director
of South Carolina Advocates for Pregnant Women, was quoted in a recent
press report as saying his policy was directed at poor, African-American
women such as Regina McKnight, and that it was all part of his political
agenda.

We don't hold out much hope that incoming Attorney General Henry McMaster
will be see things any differently; in fact, he may politicize the attorney
general's office even worse. But the Supreme Court can take the matter out
of his hands by striking down a bad law and allowing McKnight to clean up
her act outside a prison cell.