A growing number of parents across the U.S. are being criminally charged with murder or manslaughter after their children die from exposure to fentanyl.
SANTA ROSA, Calif. — Madison Bernard climbed into bed before dawn with her toddler, Charlotte, who was asleep next to a nightstand strewn with straws, burned tinfoil and a white powder.
Some 20 states have so-called "drug-induced homicide" laws, which allow prosecutors to press murder or manslaughter charges against anyone who supplies or exposes a person to drugs causing a fatal overdose. The laws are intended to target drug dealers. The debate comes as the country battles with how to effectively diminish the use of the highly accessible and extremely deadly drug.
"This is really a first in the history of our country because we have a drug on the streets that can potentially kill you instantly with a minor amount of product," Smith said. The National District Attorneys Association doesn't track how many parents have been charged for exposing their children to fentanyl, but news reports and interviews with prosecutors show such cases have been on the rise since the onset of the pandemic.
"I've been a prosecutor 25 years now and I can't recall any other drug that has led to this much destruction and death," Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Daima Calhoun said.Among those awaiting a trial that will test the approach are Tehra Alexandra Waite and Collin Pascal Kittrell, both of Riverside. The boyfriend and girlfriend were charged with murder after their toddler died of a fentanyl overdose in June 2020. They pleaded not guilty.
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