A South Carolina woman who killed her
baby daughter by giving her what
prosecutors say was a fatal dose of
morphine through her breast milk has been
jailed for 20 years.
Former nurse Stephanie Greene, 39, was
convicted in Spartanburg on Friday of
homicide by child abuse, involuntary
manslaughter and unlawful conduct toward
a child.
Six-week-old Alexis died of respiratory
failure on 13 November 2010 – a toxicology
report from the baby's autopsy found a
level of morphine in the child's body that a
pathologist testified could have been lethal
for an adult.
Prosecutor Barry Barnette said Greene knew
the dangers of taking painkillers while
pregnant and breastfeeding and had
obtained the prescription drugs by
concealing her pregnancy from doctors. She
lost her nursing license in 2004 for trying
to get drugs illegally.
Greene's lawyer said she was only trying to
stop debilitating pain from a car crash more
than a decade before and relied on her own
judgment and medical research on the
internet instead of the advice of doctors and
is still overwhelmed with grief from the loss
of her child.
Both the prosecutor and Greene's lawyer
agreed that no mother has ever been
prosecuted in the United States for killing
her child through a substance transmitted
in breast milk.
And Greene's lawyer Rauch Wise said that
prosecutors couldn't prove how the baby
got the morphine and there is little
scientific evidence that enough morphine
can gather in breast milk to kill an infant.
Greene's husband did not talk to reporters,
but Wise said he supported his wife and was
devastated as he prepared to raise their 7-
year-old son alone.
Greene's fourth pregnancy in 2010 was
unplanned, but she and her husband of 10
years joyously accepted the surprise, her
lawyer said. She has two children from a
previous marriage.
Alexis was born healthy, and her mother
chose to breast feed, but forty-six days later,
Greene called medics to report her baby was
unconscious in her bed.
On a recording of the call, she sounded
groggy and unfocused and investigators at
the scene found dozens of pill bottles and
painkiller patches on her nightstand where
the couple's then 4-year-old son could get to
them.
Greene, who could have faced life behind
bars, will have to serve 16 years in prison
before she is eligible for parole.
