Woman who lost fetus after being shot is charged with manslaughter; shooter isn't charged
Marshae Jones. Photo from the Jefferson County Jail.
Updated: A woman from Birmingham, Alabama, has been indicted on a charge of manslaughter for the death of her fetus in a shooting by another person.
Marshae Jones, 27, was charged because she allegedly started the dispute that led to the shooting last December, AL.com reports. She was arrested on Wednesday.
Grand jurors in Jefferson County indicted Jones but declined to indict the alleged shooter, who had initially been charged with manslaughter as well.
Jones was five months pregnant when she was shot in the stomach outside a Dollar General store in Pleasant Grove. Police say the alleged shooter, Ebony Jemison, 23, was defending herself in a fight initiated and continued by Jones.
Pleasant Grove Police Lt. Danny Reid said regarding the shooting that “the only true victim in this was the unborn baby.”
An abortion-rights group, the Yellowhammer Fund, released a statement criticizing the charges. “The state of Alabama has proven yet again that the moment a person becomes pregnant their sole responsibility is to produce a live, healthy baby and that it considers any action a pregnant person takes that might impede in that live birth to be a criminal act,” the group’s executive director, Amanda Reyes, said in the statement.
“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.
On Wednesday, Jefferson County District Attorney Lynneice Washington dismissed the case against Jones, the Associated Press and HuffPost report.
“After reviewing the facts of this case and the applicable state law, I have determined that it is not in the best interest of justice to pursue prosecution of Ms. Jones,” Washington said. “There are no winners, only losers, in this sad ordeal.”
Updated July 3 at 3:24 p.m. to include information about the case being dismissed against Marshae Jones.
