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It's wrong to charge a woman for the death of her fetus period, because in what circumstances do we decide that it's proper, where does it end, and how much will we police women?
a 9 month pregnant woman takes a knife and stabs herself in the belly, intentionally killing the child. No crime?
my complaint is that it is common, very common, for those in the exact situation to be charged with assault/murder for pulling a gun and shooting their aggressor. You can deny all you want but the links clearly show and address the occurrence of women going to jail for killing their abusers and the links I provided were situations where they were in imminent danger.
How often? 5% of the time? 10%? 80%? A handful of links doesn't provide sufficient data to answer that question and/or determine if your complaint is valid.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2mares
Its not a matter of sometimes should or should not be charged. I would us cases of parents leaving their children in hot cars to die for that.
You just refuse to see the bias in this case. It goes directly opposite of normal proceedings because the woman was pregnant and the shot killed the fetus instead of her.
I have no dog in this fight and I haven't and wouldn't make the case that it's a slam-dunk charge. But it's also not a gross abuse of justice intended to enslave pregnant women like so many here are shrieking hysterically about. This woman engaged in criminal behavior with the intent of committing bodily harm upon another person. The law has long held the perpetrator can still be held criminally liable if it was a third party rather than the intended target who suffered the harm and the perpetrator's behavior was a proximate cause of that harm. The only unique aspect of this case is that the third party was her own unborn child.
Pregnant woman goes to Dollar General to pick up a few things. She sees a woman who's been messing around with her boyfriend. She's carrying his child, and she decides to confront this other woman. The altercation escalates from verbal to physical. The women disengage, because the pregnant woman is sitting in a car when the other woman shoots her in the stomach. The woman who is shot calls the police. But then leaves the scene to get help. The police catch up to her at a convenience store, and she is taken to the hospital. She survives the gunshot wounds, but her unborn daughter does not. She is subsequently charged by the state for manslaughter, because she started the fight. Anything you care to add?
There is no need to shoot an unarmed, five month old pregnant woman in self defense. All you have to do is either walk quickly or run away. Unless you were born with your feet on backwards, there is no way in hell she'll catch you.
A concept known as safe retreat. An extremely sensible response when the alternative is using lethal force, but the gun nuts hated the idea. So they lobbied for "Stand your ground" laws. The outcome was predictable - indeed, predicted.
If that woman had been pregnant and didn't shoot her aggressor when she had the chance and the result was a miscarriage due to her taking a beating......Alabama would probably charge her with manslaughter for not living up to her responsibility to protect the fetus.
"She knew she was pregnant, she had a gun, she knew a beating could kill the fetus, yet she chose not to shoot, therefore, she is guilty of manslaughter."
From what we are seeing, that scenario wouldn't be far fetched in Alabama.
a 9 month pregnant woman takes a knife and stabs herself in the belly, intentionally killing the child. No crime?
I don't know because stabbing oneself may very well indicate a mental illness that can destroy culpability for that resulting death. Not many healthy people decide to stab themselves, even if it's to end a pregnancy. It will depend on what the state law says (in my state a fetus cannot be murdered) and whether a prosecutor wants to bring charges. The prosecutors in this case would clearly be more than happy to if it was their jurisdiction.
I think someone who is willing to stab herself in the stomach needs mental health care more than prison, but that's just me. I'd even see that as a suicidal act because she could easily bleed to death.
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