SLAYINGS DURING PREGNANCY NOT RARE.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

When Scott Peterson arrives on Death Row, he will not be the only man there awaiting execution for killing his pregnant wife.

Although relatively uncommon, the phenomenon of men killing pregnant wives and girlfriends isn't as rare as the massive publicity of the Peterson case might suggest, experts say.

In fact, at least one national study found that homicide was the leading cause of death among pregnant women.

If a judge approves the jury's verdict Monday to sentence Peterson to death, Peterson will join Michael Hamilton and William Dennis, who were sentenced to die for the exact same crime, said Dane Gillette, a California senior assistant attorney general who handles death penalty appeal cases.

Hamilton gunned down his pregnant wife in 1981 in Fresno. Prosecutors said he wanted to collect $100,000 in life insurance money.

Dennis, wearing a wolf mask, posed as a trick-or-treater and hacked his pregnant wife to death with a machete on Halloween 1984 in their San Jose home. He cut out the 8-month-old fetus, hacked its foot off and threw it on the floor.

``We have one case pending now where a guy allegedly killed his wife when she was pregnant,'' said Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons.

Some 324,000 pregnant women - one in 12 - are battered by their intimate partners each year, making abuse more common for pregnant women than gestational diabetes or preeclampsia, according to the Family Violence Prevention Fund, a national organization dedicated to preventing family violence.

Of all women slain in the United States in 2000, more than 33 percent were killed by an intimate partner, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

``Pregnant women are at higher risk for violence,'' said Debbie Lee, managing director of the fund. ``A Maryland study found homicide was the leading cause of death for pregnant women (nationwide) ... And a significant portion of homicides, of course, are men killing their intimate partners.''

A study by Judith McFarlane, a professor at Texas Woman's University, also found homicide was the leading cause of death among pregnant women.

``Pregnancy puts you at higher risk of being murdered, especially if you are abused while you are pregnant,'' McFarlane said. ``Men's abuse of women has to do with power and control issues. Abuse can happen when a woman is pregnant, but it always has to do with power and control issues.''

Lee said men feel they have the right to dominate their partners, and when they lose this power in the relationship they sometimes resort to violence.

``We need to put out messages in our society that domestic violence is a crime and we need to better teach boys about how to treat women and girls with respect,'' Lee said.

Troy Anderson, [phone]

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com