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She knew Davis had been to prison for Lyiah's death, but he swore he had not been the one who shook her, Quick said.

Quick had never heard of Davis' son Trey until the night she went to the emergency room with Jordan. Now, Quick said, she feels like a fool.

"I felt like everyone [at the hospital] was whispering and looking at me," she said. "It wasn't until later that I understood why. They knew the name Lee Davis."

Trageser remembers the moment a detective called to tell her about Jordan.

It was late; she had on her pajamas. When she heard Davis' name, she sank into a chair.

"I just didn't want to believe that he could do it again," she said.

In November, Davis pleaded guilty to felony child abuse for shaking Jordan. He'll be in prison until at least 2008.

Davis did not reply to several letters requesting an interview. His attorney, Nicolle Thair of Sanford, said Davis was abused as a child.

"It's a cycle, and you have to address the problem at its root," said Thair, who added that Davis deserves credit for taking responsibility for Jordan's injuries.

Law 'made for adults'

A special law to address child abuse deaths would make it easier to punish baby-shakers, some prosecutors and police investigators said. They would not need to prove malice, premeditation and deliberation -- elements usually required for a first-degree murder conviction. They would have to prove only that a defendant violently shook a baby, and as a result, the child died.

Trageser wishes such a law had been in effect when she prosecuted Davis for killing Lyiah.

"The law just wasn't on our side, the way it is written," she said.

Child homicide laws in other states carry lengthy prison terms. In California, an adult who fatally assaults a child younger than age 8 must serve 25 years to life in prison. In Mississippi, fatal abuse of a child is punishable by execution.

In North Carolina, prosecutors and juries often settle for a conviction of involuntary manslaughter, the lowest-level homicide charge available. That's what happened in 11 of the 27 deaths from 1999 through 2003 that yielded convictions. It is a less severe felony than child abuse. Someone convicted of abusing a child could get a stiffer prison sentence than someone convicted of killing a child.

"These elements in these charges are made for adults," said Greensboro Police Detective Alan McHenry, who has handled several shaken baby fatalities. "Nothing is catered toward children. Most people that shake don't mean to kill the child, but they should have known better. We've got to have something else in our arsenal. Someone's got to take responsibility for these deaths."

Officials with the N.C. Child Advocacy Institute, a private nonprofit group in Raleigh, asked for a child homicide law last winter. But they backed off after the state Attorney General's Office and the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys said it was unnecessary. There's already a way to severely punish child killers, they said.

Prosecutors can pursue first-degree murder convictions in child abuse deaths by using the felony murder rule. Under this rule, a jury can convict a defendant of first-degree murder if he committed a felony and someone died as a result.

The state Supreme Court upheld a first-degree murder conviction under the felony murder rule in 1997 for a child abuse death. But of the 44 shaken baby fatalities, only two prosecutors used the felony murder rule to obtain murder convictions.

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