COCHRAN v. COM.

No. 2008-SC-000095-DG.

315 S.W.3d 325 (2010)

Ina COCHRAN, Appellant, v. COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky, Appellee.

Supreme Court of Kentucky.

June 17, 2010.


Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

Kathleen Kallaher Schmidt, Jamesa J. Drake, Department of Public Advocacy, Frankfort, KY, Counsel for Appellant.

Jack Conway, Attorney General, James Coleman Shackelford, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Criminal Appeals, Frankfort, KY, Counsel for Appellee.

Allison G. Harris, Shearman & Sterling LLP, Tiloma Jayasinghe, Lynn M. Paltrow, Kathrine D. Jack, National Advocates for Pregnant Women, New York, NY, Michael L. Goodwin, Louisville, KY, Counsel for Amicus Curiae American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; American Psychiatric Association; American Society of Addiction Medicine; Baron Edmond De Rothschild Chemical Dependency Institute of Beth Israel Medical Center; Carol Stange, MSSW; Child Welfare Organizing Project; Fran Belvin, CPAT; Kentucky Coalition for Women's Substance Abuse Services; Kentucky Psychiatric Medical Association; Law Students for Reproductive Justice; Lynn Posze, MA, LPCC; Nancy Day, Phd; National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum; National Association of Social Workers; National Coalition for Child Protection Reform; National Perinatal Association; Northwest Women's Law Center; Our Bodies Ourselves; Pathways, Inc.; People Advocating Recovery; Sistersong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective; Stephanie S. Covington, Phd, LCSW; Susan Barron, Phd; Susan Boyd, Phd; The Drug Policy Alliance; The Healing Place Women's and Children's Community.

Sheryl G. Snyder, Amy D. Cubbage, Frost Brown & Todd LLC, Louisville, KY, Jill C. Morrison, Washington, DC, Counsel for Amicus Curiae Legal Momentum and National Women's Law Center.

Caroline Bettinger-Lopez, Columbia Law School, New York, NY, Michael Jay O'Hara, O'Hara, Ruberg, Taylor, Sloan & Sergent, Covington, KY, Counsel for Amicus Curiae Anti-Sexism Committee of the National Lawyers Guild; Center for Reproductive Rights; Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic; Columbia Law School Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic; Constitutional Litigation Clinic at Rutgers School of Law—Newark; Criminal Justice Clinic at Hofstra Law School; International Mental Disability Law Reform Project in the Justice Action Center at New York Law School; International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Programme at the University of Toronto; Jamie O'Connell (University of California, Berkeley School of Law, International Human Rights Law Clinic); Justice Now; Leitner Center for International Law & Justice at Fordham Law School; Mindy Jane Roseman (Harvard Law School, Human Rights Program); Southwest Women's Law Center.

David Alan Friedman, William Ellis Sharp, ACLU of Kentucky, Louisville, KY, Counsel for Amicus Curiae American Civil Liberties Union Foundation Reproductive Freedom Project; American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky.

Forrest Roberts, Owensboro, KY, Lawrence J. Nelson, Law Offices of Lawrence J. Nelson, San Francisco, CA, Counsel for Amicus Curiae American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry; Anna C. Mastroianni, JD, MPH; Bryan Hilliard, Phd; C. Ronald Koons, MD, FACP; Cavin P. Leeman, Phd; David Magnus, Phd; Donald Brunnquell, Phd, LP; Elaiane Morgan, MD; Glenn McGee, Phd; Global Lawyers and Physicians; Gregory Loeben, Phd; Hilde Lindemann, Phd; Howard Brody, MD, Phd; Howard Minkoff, MD; Inmaculada De Melo-Martin, Phd, MS; Jeffrey Kahn, Phd, MPH; Judith Bernstein, RNC, Phd; Katherine A. Taylor, JD, Phd; Lauren G. McAliley, MSN, MA, CNP; Lois Shepard, JD; Mary Faith Marshall, PHD; Peter J. Cohen, MD, JD; Rebecca Bigoney, MD; Rev. Timonthy A. Thorstenson; Robert A. Deweese, MD, MA; Rosamond Rhodes, Phd; Stephen S. Hanson, Phd; Susan K. Palmer, MD; Timothy F. Murphy, Phd.


OPINION OF THE COURT

This appeal considers whether a woman may be charged with wanton endangerment of her child based on having ingested illegal drugs while pregnant. As this Court previously recognized in Commonwealth v. Welch, 864 S.W.2d 280 (Ky.1993), the General Assembly has expressly precluded such a prosecution by the Maternal Health Act of 1992. Therefore, we hold that the trial court properly dismissed the indictment...

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