Miami: An Alabama prosecutor dismissed charges Wednesday against an American woman who was charged by state authorities over the death of her foetus, having miscarried after being shot five times.
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Marshae Jones, 27, was shot in the abdomen in December during a fight with another woman, resulting in the death of her five-month-old foetus. She was arrested last week for manslaughter, as authorities said she was responsible for the fight escalating.
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Her lawyer filed a motion to dismiss the case, which has been decried by rights groups, and on Wednesday Lynniece Washington, the district attorney for Bessemer Cutoff, southwest of Birmingham, dropped the charges.
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“There are no winners, only losers, in this sad case,” Washington told a press conference, according to the news website AL.com.
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Jones’s lawyer Mark White applauded Washington’s decision, which he called “appropriate… both for our client and for the State of Alabama.”
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“The District Attorney’s decision will help Marshae continue to heal from this tragic event,” White said in a statement.
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“With the dismissal of charges, the community of support that surrounded Marshae can now channel its immense passion and energy toward ensuring” such a case never happens again.
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The ACLU also released a statement commending the dismissal, writing that Washington’s decision “represents precisely what we want to see in these critical moments: a prosecutor who is not afraid to use prosecutorial discretion and power to refuse to prosecute when the law and justice demand that charges should be dropped.”
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Jones’s arrest came amid heightened tensions around women’s rights after more than a dozen states in the southern and midwestern United States, including Alabama, passed restrictive abortion laws that are currently being challenged in court.
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Alabama’s law, which was passed in May, bans abortion even in cases of rape or incest, equating it with homicide.
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The law is set to come into force in November, but is likely to be blocked in court because it goes against the 1973 US Supreme Court Roe v Wade ruling that legalized abortion.
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