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Pregnancy: South Carolina Supreme Court Overturns Woman's Murder Conviction for Fetal Death After Cocaine Use

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #536)
Drug War Issues
Politics & Advocacy

The South Carolina Supreme Court Monday threw out the homicide by child abuse conviction of Regina McKnight, the first woman in South Carolina to be convicted on that charge for suffering an unintentional stillbirth after having used cocaine during her pregnancy. In its ruling in McKnight v. South Carolina, the court held that McKnight received inadequate counsel during her trial and that her conviction was based on "outdated" and inaccurate information linking the fetal death to her cocaine use.

McKnight was arrested in 1999, several months after she experienced a stillbirth at Conway Hospital. She was convicted of homicide by child abuse in 2001 after a jury bought scientifically unsupported arguments that her cocaine use caused the stillbirth. Although McKnight had no prior conviction, and even prosecutors agreed she had no intention of harming the fetus, she was sentenced to 12 years in prison with no chance of parole.

McKnight unsuccessfully appealed her conviction in 2002, challenging the constitutionality of using murder statutes to prosecute women who experience stillbirths. But in a split decision, the state Supreme Court upheld her conviction, offering a novel interpretation of the state's homicide laws. The court held that any woman who unintentionally heightens the risk of a stillbirth could be found guilty of homicide with "extreme indifference to human life." Under this doctrine, the court held, any pregnant woman who engages in activity "potentially fatal" to her fetus could be charged with murder.

McKnight and her attorneys appealed to the US Supreme Court, but that body declined to review the decision.

In Monday's decision, the state Supreme Court focused on whether McKnight got a fair trial. It found that she did not. McKnight's trial counsel, an overworked public defender, was "ineffective in her preparation of McKnight's defense through expert testimony and cross-examination," the court found. The court also found that the information given to the jury about the supposed link between McKnight's cocaine use and her stillbirth was not scientifically supported.

"Significantly, the opinion acknowledges that current research simply does not support the assumption that prenatal exposure to cocaine results in harm to the fetus, and the opinion makes clear that it is certainly 'no more harmful to a fetus than nicotine use, poor nutrition, lack of prenatal care, or other conditions commonly associated with the urban poor,'" said Susan Dunn, counsel for amicus. "This decision puts prosecutors across the state on notice that they must actually prove that an illegal drug has risked or caused harm -- not simply rely on prejudice and medical misinformation."

"Ms. McKnight is one of more than 500 women in South Carolina who experience stillbirths each year, and in many of those cases, medicine just can't determine the cause," said Brandi Parrish, coordinator of the South Carolina Coalition for Healthy Families. "It is a tragedy that Ms. McKnight has been in prison for nearly eight years for a crime she did not commit. Families in South Carolina are not helped by treating stillbirths as crimes and wasting hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to imprison innocent mothers."

At least 90 women have been prosecuted in South Carolina for stillbirths after using drugs, according to National Advocates for Pregnant Women, one of a number of organizations that got involved in the case when McKnight sought redress. "The groups got involved because there is complete consensus that prosecuting pregnant women is bad for mothers and babies," said Lynn Paltrow, head of the group. "Regina McKnight was convicted on junk science and was not fairly represented at trial," she told Myrtle Beach Online Tuesday.

McKnight is not out of the woods yet. Her case has been remanded for retrial, but prosecutors have so far given no indication whether they will proceed. In the meantime, she remains in prison awaiting a hearing on bail pending her new trial.

Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

Comments

Anonymous (not verified)

America is NOT the land of the FREE!!!! This story is a fine example. I can not believe that woman is behind bars for this and we have pedophiles out running the streets! I know I dont want my tax dollars keeping someone in jail for something like that!!!! Make America free vote Libertarian! Ron Paul !!!

Fri, 05/16/2008 - 11:56am Permalink
Anonymous (not verified)

But the War on Some Drugs is a Race War. People of color and the poor fill our prisons. Our entire system of retribution, straight out of the Christian Bible teachings, have set the foundation to punish people instead of helping them. Repression is alive and well in Amerikkka. Congratulations, Regina, and I apologize for what they did to you, because, until WE end this, WE are all responsible for those who are being punished for trying to feel better.

Fri, 05/16/2008 - 1:21pm Permalink
sicntired (not verified)

[email protected],Vancouver,B.C.Canada The real story isn't that she's been let go but that she was even charged in the first place.This is what's wrong with the justice system.You get a prosecutor with an agenda and he can ruin a lot of lives.This should never have seen the light of day.

Sat, 05/17/2008 - 6:00am Permalink
Anonymous (not verified)

I mean, how did the prosecutors even find out about the stillbirth, and that she had used cocaine? They simply must have been moral fanatics out to find people to punish.

Thu, 05/22/2008 - 10:17pm Permalink
Anonymous (not verified)

Birth should be a special thing. This woman killed her baby because of her selfishness of not giving up cocaine. First of all, cocaine is illegal. Second, under the Child Abuse Laws, doing anything that can injure or harm a viable fetus in anyway is Child Abuse. And not only did this woman abuse her unborn baby, but she killed it. And you're telling people that this woman should just be let go free? Where are our morals going in the world?
And America is the land of the free, and I'm sorry that you think it sounds okay to do drugs, even while you're pregnant and eventually killing the unborn child. But I'm pretty sure that is not what our Founding Fathers wanted when they gave us our freedom.

Sat, 05/09/2009 - 12:46pm Permalink
Anonymous (not verified)

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Your absolutely correct, pregnancy is a special gift, a special gift from God. However, individuals have an abundance of deep rooted issues that they are facing, and in no way am I excusing drug use, but we all have our own vices, and unless you have been an addict, you really don't know what addiction is. I think we should be attempting to aid these women by mandatory drug treatment programs, not sentencing them to jail. Imagine if you had a daughter, or maybe you do, and she was jailed simply because of her inability to overcome her habit. Right is Right, and Wrong is Wrong, however, two negative do not make a positive. Some food for thought.

Sun, 09/06/2009 - 11:39am Permalink
Anonymous (not verified)

ACTUALLY, they did have medical evidence.

When Regina McKnight gave birth to her stillborn, they took a urine sample from her and they took blood from the dead baby and they both came back positive for cocaine exposure.

I've been studying cases like these. Everyone just needs to get their facts straight before they go blabbing on about how right they are.

And also, America's freedom doesn't mean doing drugs while pregnant. And this also has nothing to do with racism either. They would have found any mother ignorant enough to do this guilty.

And I don't appreciate the term "Crackers", just because you think all white people are racist. Well, look who is talking.

Sat, 05/09/2009 - 12:53pm Permalink
borden (not verified)

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Logic please.

It's not enough to demonstrate cocaine exposure. It's also necessary to show that cocaine exposure causes stillbirths. Research has been done on this, and it has not turned up such evidence. In fact, the research has not found cocaine-exposed infants to be any different health-wise than other infants, at least not in large and long-term ways.

Because research indicates that pre-natal cocaine exposure causes these types of problems, to convict McKnight and others on such a basis is to convict them based on false assumptions. The justice system is supposed to operate on facts, not emotion-driven fiction. So far it's alcohol use that is proven to be the big pre-natal problem, and also cigarettes, based on the evidence.

I'd agree that if a parent remains addicted, that that can have an affect on the quality of parenting, and affect a child that way, but that is a different thing.

I will try to find the links backing up my statements, but I think most recently it was research by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Also, many medical and public health organizations have called for this type of prosecution to stop, based in part on the fact that it drives the mothers away from the pre-natal care that their children need them to get. Another reason why logic is so important in this issue.

David Borden, Executive Director
StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network
Washington, DC
http://stopthedrugwar.org

Sun, 09/06/2009 - 12:49pm Permalink

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