STILLBORN BABY CASE MAY ALTER ABUSE LAW

The S.C. Supreme Court's decision on a Conway woman's appeal of her 12-year
prison sentence could change the way pregnant women who use drugs are
treated in the state.

The court will hear arguments from Regina Denise McKnight of Conway on
Wednesday in Columbia. In May 2001, an Horry County jury convicted McKnight
of homicide by child abuse for using crack cocaine while she was pregnant.

Her stillborn baby girl, delivered May 15, 1999, had a byproduct of cocaine
in her blood. Prosecutors determined McKnight, who had a history of drug
use, had smoked crack cocaine while pregnant.

Based on a 1997 state Supreme Court decision, South Carolina is the only
state that allows prosecution under child abuse laws for harming a fetus.

About six months ago, McKnight's case was working its way through the state
Court of Appeals system when the state Supreme Court decided to preside
over it. Nearly three weeks ago, justices agreed to allow the attorneys to
argue the case as a precedent.

Winning a reversal of the Supreme Court's 1997 ruling is part of the
strategy. The conviction crumbles without it, McKnight's lawyers say.

The court rarely overturns its own recent decisions but usually grants
formal motions that challenge its precedents, said University of South
Carolina law professor Eldon Wedlock.

"If they overturn it, that'll put us in line with the rest of the country,"
said Rauch Wise of Greenwood, one of McKnight's attorneys.

Wise said pregnant women who are drug addicts should be allowed to seek
treatment instead of being jailed.

The 1997 S.C. Supreme Court ruling, involving Cornelia Whitner of Easley,
defined a viable fetus as a victim in a crime and made the fetus a person
separate from the mother before birth.

That separation allowed for criminal prosecution of anyone who harms a
viable fetus through means such as physical violence and drug use.

The ruling upheld Whitner's 1992 conviction for child neglect, which
resulted from cocaine being found in her newborn's urine.

"The [Supreme] Court could re-evaluate its definition of a victim for
criminal prosecution. They could possibly change the meaning of it," said
15th Judicial Circuit Solicitor Greg Hembree, whose office prosecuted
McKnight. "It's a tough issue, and it triggers an abortion argument. It's
not an abortion issue."

Attorney General Charlie Condon, whose office represents the state against
McKnight, said he hopes the court upholds the 1997 ruling.

When Condon was Charleston's solicitor in the late 1980s, he started
prosecuting pregnant women addicted to cocaine. He continued the practice
when he became attorney general in 1995.

"I think the people of this state really support this policy," he said. "If
a child was born and the mother put cocaine down the child's throat, no one
would have second thoughts about prosecuting the mother."

One of McKnight's lawyers, Lynn Paltrow, executive director of National
Advocates for Pregnant Women in New York, said at least 72 pregnant S.C.
women have been prosecuted for drug use since 1989.

Because of the 1997 decision, women can be charged if they do anything to
harm their fetuses, including smoking or drinking, many say.

"What you're opening the door to is subjecting every single woman who has a
stillbirth to a criminal indictment," Paltrow said.