Court Opinion

ID: 9615088
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:31:14.345693+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:21:22.926163
License: Public Domain

FINNEY, Chief Justice:
I respectfully dissent, and would affirm the grant of post-conviction relief to respondent Whitner.
The issue before the Court is whether a fetus is a “child” within the meaning of S.C.Code Ann. § 20-7-50 (1985), a statute which makes it a misdemeanor1 for a “person having legal custody of any child or helpless person” to unlawfully neglect that child or helpless person. Since this is a penal statute, it is strictly construed against the State and in favor of respondent. State v. Blackmon, 304 S.C. 270, 403 S.E.2d 660 (1991).
The term child for purposes of § 20-7-50 is defined as a “person under the age of eighteen” unless a different meaning is required by the circumstances. S.C.Code Ann. § 20-7-30(1) (1985). We have already held that this same definition found in another part of the Children’s Code means a child in being and not a fetus. Doe v. Clark, 318 S.C. 274, 457 S.E.2d 336 (1995). It would be incongruous at best to hold the definition of “child” in the civil context of Doe is more restrictive than it is in the criminal context we consider today.
More importantly, it is apparent from a reading of the entire statute that the word child in § 20-7-50 means a child in being and not a fetus. See Jackson v. Charleston County *20School District, 316 S.C. 177, 447 S.E.2d 859 (1994) (when construing a statute, we do not view its terms in isolation, but rather in the context of the entire statute and its intended purpose). A plain reading of the entire child neglect statute demonstrates the intent to criminalize only acts directed at children, and not those which may harm fetuses. First, § 20-7-50 does not impose criminal liability on every person who neglects a child, but only on a person having legal custody of that child. The statutory requirement of legal custody is evidence of intent to extend the statute’s reach only to children, because the concept of legal custody is simply inapplicable to a fetus. See Stone v. State, 313 S.C. 533, 443 S.E.2d 544 (1994) (statutes are construed so as to avoid absurd results). Second, § 20-7-50 refers to S.C.Code Ann. § 20-7-490 (1985 and Supp.1994) for the definition of neglect. Section 20-7-490 defines a neglected child as one harmed or threatened with harm, and further defines harm. § 20-7-490(B), (C), and (D). The vast majority of acts which constitute statutory harm under § 20-7-490 are acts which can only be directed against a child, and not towards a fetus.2 The reliance upon § 20-7-490 in § 20-7-50 is further evidence that the term child as used in the child neglect statute does not encompass a fetus. Read in context, and in light of the statutory purpose of protecting persons of tender years,3 it is clear that “child” as used in § 20-7-50 means a child in being. Jackson v. Charleston County School District, supra.
At most, the majority only suggests that the term “child” as used in § 20-7-50 is ambiguous. This suggestion of ambiguity is created not by reference to our decisions under the Children’s Code or by reference to the statutory language and applicable rules of statutory construction, but by reliance on decisions in two different fields of the law, civil wrongful death and common law feticide. Here, we deal with the Children’s Code, and the meaning of language used in a criminal statute under that Code. We have already indicated that a child *21within the meaning of § 20-7-90(A) (1985), which criminalizes non-support, must be one already born. State v. Montgomery, 246 S.C. 545, 144 S.E.2d 797 (1965) (indictment for violation of predecessor of § 20-7-90(A) fatally defective for failing to identify the child by description or date of birth); see also Doe v. Clark, supra. Even if these wrongful death, common law, and Children’s Code decisions are sufficient to render the term child in § 20-7-50 ambiguous, it is axiomatic that the ambiguity must be resolved in respondent’s favor. State v. Blackmon, supra.
I would affirm.

. After this case arose, the statute was amended to change the classification from misdemeanor to felony. 1993 Act No. 184, § 55 (effective January 1, 1994).

. Examples include condoning delinquency, using excessive corporal punishment, committing sexual offenses against the child, and depriving her of adequate food, clothing, shelter or education.

. State v. Jenkins, 278 S.C. 219, 294 S.E.2d 44 (1982) (construing § 16-3-1030, recodified as § 20-7-50).