Johnson v. State

602 So.2d 1288 (1992)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Johnson (D) took drugs while pregnant with her two children and the State brought criminal charges against her because of the delivery of those drugs to her two children via blood flowing through the children's umbilical cords in the sixty to ninety second period they were expelled from the birth canal but before their cords were separated. For the first child, D admitted to her pediatrician that she had used cocaine the night before and a basic toxicology test on the child was positive for cocaine use. With respect to the second child, D suffered a crack overdose and admitted to taking $200 worth of crack earlier that evening. During that labor, D admitted to using rock cocaine that morning there were no complications from that birth. In both births, the babies were connected to D for about 1.5 minutes before the cords were cut. Expert witnesses at trial confirmed that her children had been exposed to cocaine based on the testimony heard. D's expert testified that it was impossible to determine if the children were actually subjected to cocaine during the birth cycle but admitted that it was a theoretical possibility that the drugs could have been delivered through the umbilical cord. No witness testified in this case that any cocaine derivatives passed from the mother's womb to the placenta during the sixty-to-ninety seconds after the child was expelled from the birth canal. That is when any 'delivery' would have to have taken place under this statute, from one 'person' to another 'person.' D was convicted and appealed.