WASHINGTON - A woman in the United States state of South Carolina was sentenced Friday to 20 years for killing her six-week-old infant with drug-tainted milk from her own breast.
A jury convicted the mother, Stephanie Irene Greene, 39, on Thursday of homicide by child abuse, involuntary manslaughter and unlawful conduct toward a child. Her infant daughter died in November 2010 of an overdose of morphine, the Spartanburg Herald Journal reported.
Greene took various medications, including morphine and pain killers, before the baby died, according to media reports. Greene neglected to tell the doctors who prescribed the drugs that she was nursing her baby.
The prosecutor pointed out that Greene could not have been ignorant of the drugs' potential effects on an infant because she had a nursing degree. He also said Greene "knew how to work the system" to obtain more prescriptions from doctors who never knew about her pregnancy.