STATE TO REVISIT CHARGES AGAINST PREGNANT WOMEN

COLUMBIA -- For the second time, attorneys will try to overturn a South
Carolina law allowing prosecutors to charge pregnant women with homicide by
child abuse if they kill their fetus by using cocaine.

This time, the law is being challenged by Regina McKnight, who was
sentenced to 12 years in prison after a jury took 10 minutes to convict her
in the death of her stillborn daughter.

Attorney C. Rauch Wise, who will argue McKnight's case before the state's
high court Wednesday, said he doesn't understand how a state that struggles
to provide drug treatment to the poor can justify such a harsh sentence to
a woman who had named her daughter and begged nurses to be allowed to hold
the tiny body.

"It's just such a bad decision, and I don't know any way to be more blunt
than that," Wise said. "It is a decision that defies to me the logic of the
law and a decision that makes bad social policy."

But for prosecutor Greg Hembree, whose office convicted McKnight, a woman's
decision to take cocaine while her fetus can live outside the womb is just
as responsible for its death as if she took cocaine when the baby was a
week old and killed it in a car wreck.

"She chose to disregard the safety of that child and put that child at risk
of death. Because of her selfishness or her own personal desires, she
killed the baby," Hembree said.

South Carolina's Supreme Court paved the way for such cases six years ago
when it ruled a viable fetus is considered a child and that women could be
charged with abuse if they took drugs after their fetus reached a viable stage.

Punishing pregnant women for illegal drug use has been a hot issue in South
Carolina for more than a decade. Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled hospitals couldn't test pregnant women for drugs without consent then
turn the results over to police.

But Wise said the court's willingness to reconsider its 1996 decision shows
that the attitude toward punishing pregnant addicts might be changing.

"It's been shown to be bad law, particularly in view of the fact that no
other state in the union has followed it," Wise said.

State Attorney General Charlie Condon, whose office has been behind the
so-called "crack mom" laws, said he still supports the measures.

"Just because you are the first doesn't mean you're wrong," Condon said.
"I've been around the country a lot, and I know the vast majority of
Americans share South Carolina's view that would should protect viable
unborn children."

McKnight, 25, of Conway was convicted in May 2001 after a two-day trial.
Wyndi Anderson of the South Carolina Advocates for Pregnant Women said the
swiftness of the verdict showed a willingness of jurors "to base their
judgment on stereotypes."

A pathologist testifying for prosecutors said McKnight and her stillborn
daughter tested positive for high amounts of a cocaine byproduct and
determined cocaine use led to the death of the fetus.

But a defense expert who analyzed autopsy results said an inflammation of
the placenta, which could have at least two causes other than drug use,
killed the fetus.

If they can't challenge the constitutionality of South Carolina's law,
McKnight's attorney plans to argue that prosecutors didn't prove cocaine
caused the death.

Wise will cite a study by the Journal of the American Medical Association
that says using cocaine is about as harmful to a fetus as cigarette smoking
and less harmful than heavy drinking.

Wise also plans to argue that McKnight's 12-year sentence was cruel and
unusual punishment. While a handful of other women have been prosecuted
under the law, most ended up with probation and drug treatment.

Hembree says the McKnight case was different because she didn't try to get
help.

"There was a path for her out of this problem. We have an amnesty program
that the crowd that has been critical of our pursuit of this case like to
ignore," Hembree said. "We don't want to prosecute anybody."

In a similar case, Hembree said his prosecutors made a deal with a pregnant
drug addict arrested on unrelated charges to let her go through drug
counseling in exchange for not pursuing a child abuse case.

"We got her into drug treatment, and I hope it works," he said.

But Anderson said many low-income pregnant women don't have access to
medical care and may not trust the police to help them.

"Our health care system discriminates against poor people," she said. "It
seems like poor people have to accept the fact that health care and
criminal justice can be mixed together."