Woman addict whose baby died must stand trial on murder charge

A woman charged with murder after giving birth will face trial in Kings County Superior Court, on the grounds her child was born dead because of her drug use.

The case has become part of a debate on the meaning of a decades-old law that states prosecutors cannot charge a woman with the murder of her own fetus. The Kings County District Attorney's office has argued that protection applies only when a woman seeks a lawful abortion -- not when she harms the fetus through illegal drug use, as prosecutors say Chelsea Becker did. People v. Becker, 19CM-5304 (Kings Super. Ct., filed Oct. 31, 2019).

Becker's case has garnered nationwide attention and an attempted intervention by state Attorney General Xavier Becerra. It's also already made its way to the 5th District Court of Appeal and the California Supreme Court over differing interpretations of the law.

The Kings County Superior Court held a preliminary hearing in the case on Monday and Tuesday. The judge who has been hearing the case, Robert S. Burns, was absent. Assigned Judge Joseph A. Kalashian oversaw the hearing and made the ruling. Kalashian retired from the Tulare County Superior Court in 2014.

"We called a medical doctor and a social worker to the stand to testify, as well as the investigating police officer," Philip W. Esbenshade, executive assistant district attorney, said in an email. "The court found that there was probable cause, and thus held Ms. Becker to answer for trial."

In October 2019, Becker gave birth to a stillborn son. She was arrested days later after hospital staff told the medical examiner that the boy had methamphetamine in his system.

The court will arraign Becker on Dec. 29 and hold a hearing to show cause on Jan. 4, according to the court's website. She is being held in custody because she cannot post bail.

Jacqueline B. Goodman, a Fullerton sole practitioner, has joined Becker's legal team pro bono. A board member with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Goodman has also joined the defense of Adora Perez, who signed a plea deal in a similar case in Kings County.

"I take issue as to whether this statute applies not just to criminalize but to find murder charges for a mother on the basis of the outcome her pregnancy," Goodman said. "Also, if it did apply to mothers, I think Chelsea Becker is not guilty."

As the case goes forward, it will involve experts dueling over the levels of substances found in the child's body and at what point in the pregnancy he died.

Meanwhile, a separate portion of the case has been working its way through the appeals process. The 5th District declined to review the case in October. Becker's team has since appealed to the California Supreme Court, which granted review. The California Department of Justice and others have filed amici briefs. Becker v. Superior Court, S265209 (Cal. Sup. Ct, filed Oct. 26, 2020).

At issue is a section of California's law, Penal Code Section 187. The Legislature amended the law in 1970 after the California Supreme Court overturned the murder conviction of a man who beat his pregnant wife.

Lynn M. Paltrow, the executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women in New York, said one only has to look at the California Legislature's intent when it passed the law. She pointed to an affidavit submitted by the author of the law, the late W. Craig Biddle, in a 1992 prosecution in San Benito County.

Biddle, who served in both the Assembly and Senate between 1964 and 1975, wrote that "the sole intent" of AB 816 was "to make punishable as murder a third party's willful assault on a pregnant woman resulting in the death of her fetus." The law was never intended to apply to "conduct by a pregnant woman," he said.

"The institution that makes criminal laws, in California and virtually every other state, is the state Legislature," Paltrow said. "The state Legislature has spoken very clearly."