Alabama woman loses unborn child after being shot, gets arrested; shooter goes free

[EweSurname]

www.al.com/news/birmingham/2019/06/woman-indicted-in-shooting-death-of-her-unborn-child-charges-against-shooter-dismissed.html

“The investigation showed that the only true victim in this was the unborn baby,’’ Pleasant Grove police Lt. Danny Reid said at the time of the shooting. “It was the mother of the child who initiated and continued the fight which resulted in the death of her own unborn baby.”

[...]"Let’s not lose sight that the unborn baby is the victim here,’’ Reid said. “She had no choice in being brought unnecessarily into a fight where she was relying on her mother for protection."

Sux the person who shot her was prosecuted and found not guilty by reason of self defence, as I understand it from the article.

Yes, she committed a crime, but her crime wasn't manslaughter of her foetus - it was assault of another woman.

And not taking folic acid isn't a crime.

Yellowhammer Fund Executive Director Amanda Reyes said in the statement:
“Today, Marshae Jones is being charged with manslaughter for being pregnant and getting shot while engaging in an altercation with a person who had a gun. Tomorrow, it will be another black woman, maybe for having a drink while pregnant. And after that, another, for not obtaining adequate prenatal care,” Reyes said.

Person A started a fight. Person B defended themselves, and in doing so injured Person A. Person A is found guilty of an offence, because they were the assailant. Person B's actions were scrutinised, but were ruled to be self defence , which is permitted by law as long as it is proportionate.

That's not quite accurate.

Person A started a fight. Person B shot them, and in so doing put at risk person As life, and killed a 5 month old foetus.
Person A (Marshae Jones) was indicted in the death (of the 5 month old foetus) and was indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury on a manslaughter charge. Nothing to do with 'guilty because they were the assailant'

Yes, I don't think the article says whether the woman who started the fight was actually found guilty of assaulting the other woman.

Jesus wept!

How Is shooting a pregnant woman proportionate self defence?

Seeing the woman was five months pregnant, which Google tells me is 20 weeks, the foetus will have been well short of viable. Im a bit uncomfortable about calling it an unborn child. She lost a pregnancy rather than a child. I understand that when you're excited about it a pregnancy is an unborn child

This is horrendous news, and I know women's groups in America are despairing about it...

jay55 that's America for you...

It doesn’t matter how the altercation started. A woman should not be charged with manslaughter because she did not only make perfect choices for her developing fetus. I don’t care if she started a fight. I don’t care if she took drugs. I don’t care if she drank 3 liters of vodka a day. There has to be a hard line drawn. A person’s body is their own. They can damage it as much as they want.

If she started a fight she should be charged and convicted for assault.

Jesus how are there people on this thread defending this! They can't be for real

Why is it okay to shoot and kill an unborn foetus, but not to be carrying said foetus when it is killed?

Go back to your kitchens, women, and God forbid you ever say/do anything that is not sweetness and light!

Yes, by this logic, if the foetus is a person, the shooter shot an unarmed person who had nothing to do with the altercation so it can't be self defence.

And friend of mine had a miscarriage when she was hit by a car while riding a bicycle.

I can see a law like that applying to her. As it was, my friend did not know she was pregnant at the time, would that count as a defense?

I'd be willing to bet that if the same happened to a rich white woman she would not be in custody right now.

Absolutely

Outrageous

Coming to a fascist theocracy near you

I'd be willing to bet that if the same happened to a rich white woman she would not be in custody right now.

Not sure how pointing out that rich white women get slightly better treatment under patriarchy really helps women. It is important to understand how race intersects with class to oppress black women, but this doesn't mean white and/or rich women are any less oppressed. They still get a very shitty deal.

To put it another way, poor black women are more oppressed than rich white women, but rich white women still can't escape their sex.

I really struggle to understand how shooting someone in the stomach five times can be proportionate self-defence. Do we know if the mother was armed?

Of course, there is no chance of the authorities acknowledging that this tragedy could have been averted by the simple existence of adequate gun control laws.

Difficult to believe this is happening in the so called land of the free.

To quote Rage Against the Machine, Land of the free? Whoever taught you that is your enemy.

This is where draconian abortion law and insane gun law gets us; women if your fetus is harmed by guns, it's not the gun, it's not the shooter, it's you.

It's absolutely disgusting!
Alabama state are using Marshae Jones as a weapon to try to overturn Roe v Wade.
I hope Marshae can get enough support behind her to get a case of aiding & abetting a felony, discrimination & assault against the state of Alabama.

Ok Marshae may have started the disagreement but Alabama legislation allows guns willy nilly, discrimination because you can bet your bottom dollar if 2 men were fighting over Marshae & one of the men shot her causing her to lose her pregnancy........well nothing would probably happen to her & the shooter would get charged.
Assault or false imprisonment as nowhere does it say as far as I know in the US constitution that an embryo or foetus is a person!

Some of these US states are in a state of cognitive dissonance by having the death penalty & allowing people to have guns.
Yet don't want women to have safe termination of an unwanted or dangerous (to the mother or even a foetus incompatible with life outside the womb)

Why do they hate women so much?