SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A central California woman charged with murder after delivering a stillborn baby who tested positive for methamphetamine may be released to a treatment center pending trial.
Chelsea Becker has been in a Kings County Jail since November 2019, where a judge on Tuesday will consider her request to move to a treatment facility.
Her attorneys argue that she shouldn’t even be in jail because the state’s homicide penal code does not apply to pregnant women.
California lawmakers amended the state’s murder code in 1970 to include a fetus. Attorney General Xavier Becerra says it was not meant to apply to pregnant women. Becker has pleaded not guilty.
