"That bail amount is normally reserved for mass murderers and serial rapists, not for a 21-year-old college student with no prior record," Wallin said. "No matter what the circumstances are, this girl is not a risk to society."
Wallin also took issue Friday with the law enforcement account of the current case, saying there was no evidence thus far that the child had been born alive or stillborn. He said that the tests to establish that had yet to be completed.
A spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner's office said Friday that the cause of death had not yet been determined. Autopsies can take up to six weeks.
The law enforcement sources said that Ashcraft will probably face a second-degree -- not first-degree -- murder case so that prosecutors don't have to deal with the issue of intent on her part.
Wallin would not comment Friday on his client's state of mind but said her mother and other relatives had flown in from around the country to support her and meet with her attorneys. No one in the family would comment on the case, he said.
"This is a time she should definitely be anywhere other than Los Angeles County Jail," Wallin said. "She should be with her family and people who can counsel her."
Friends and the real estate broker who rented Ashcraft the one-room apartment where she had lived since August described her as a sweet, personable young woman. Several, including those who had seen her in recent weeks, said she did not appear to be pregnant.
"She seemed fine, just kind of normal," said Uchechukwu Anene, a USC junior who said she had seen Ashcraft last week.
Wallin said Ashcraft was on a full-tuition scholarship at USC, although he said he did not know whether that was based on financial need, merit or both. A USC spokesman, James Grant, said he could not comment on Ashcraft's financial-aid status but said a scholarship that paid tuition and fees would be worth about $32,000 for the current academic year. Ashcraft, however, was suspended from school this week, pending the outcome of her case, Grant said.
Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, said the only reason the prosecutors asked for -- and received -- a doubling of Ashcraft's original $1-million bail was because Ashcraft is a Montana native and considered a flight risk, with few ties to Southern California.
Other criminal-defense attorneys agreed with Wallin that Ashcraft's bail was excessive and said it was probably a result of the case's high profile.
Charles L. Lindner, past president of the Los Angeles Criminal Bar Assn., said the $2-million bail was clearly "set up to keep her in jail."
"There's no evidence this woman is going to go anywhere," Lindner said. "The worst-case scenario is she returns home to Montana. She's an American citizen. Where ... do they think she's going to go?"
Times staff writer Jean Guccione contributed to this report.
