This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

P pled guilty to criminal child neglect, S.C. Code Ann. § 20-7-50 (1985), for causing her baby to be born with cocaine metabolites in its system by reason of P's ingestion of crack cocaine during the third trimester of her pregnancy. The courts sentenced P to eight years in prison. P did not appeal her conviction. P filed a petition for Post Conviction Relief pleading the circuit court's lack of subject matter jurisdiction to accept her guilty plea as well as ineffective assistance of counsel. The latter was based on her lawyer's failure to advise her the statute under which she was being prosecuted might not apply to prenatal drug use. The petition was granted on both grounds. D appealed.

The legal issues presented in this case will be displayed here.

The court's holding and decision will be displayed here.

Legal analysis from Dean's Law Dictionary will be displayed here.