Woman charged for starting fight that led to her unborn baby being shot - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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A woman has been charged under the felony murder legal doctrine for starting a fight that led to her baby being shot.
The shooter is free, and the authorities blame the woman. (I can't say I entirely disagree with their decision here)

A woman whose unborn baby was killed in a 2018 Pleasant Grove shooting has now been indicted in the death.

Marshae Jones, a 27-year-old Birmingham woman, was indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury on a manslaughter charge. She was taken into custody on Wednesday.

Though Jones didn't fire the shots that killed her unborn baby girl, authorities say she initiated the dispute that led to the gunfire. Police initially charged 23-year-old Ebony Jemison with manslaughter, but the charge against Jemison was dismissed after the grand jury failed to indict her.

The shooting happened about noon on December 4, 2018, outside Dollar General on Park Road. Officers were dispatched to the scene on a report of someone shot but arrived to find the shooting victim - later identified as Jones - had been picked up and driven to Fairfield. Police and paramedics then found the Jones at a Fairfield convenience store.

Jones was taken from Fairfield to UAB Hospital. She was five months pregnant and was shot in the stomach. The unborn baby did not survive the shooting.

"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."

Reid said the fight stemmed over the unborn baby's father. The investigation showed, he said, that it was Jones who initiated and pressed the fight, which ultimately caused Jemison to defend herself and unfortunately caused the death of the 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."

The 5-month fetus was "dependent on its mother to try to keep it from harm, and she shouldn’t seek out unnecessary physical altercations," Reid added.

Jones will be transferred to the Jefferson County Jail where she will be held on $50,000 bond.

News of Jones' grand jury indictment outraged many, including women’s rights activists.

The Yellowhammer Fund, a member of the National Network of Abortion Funds which helps women access abortion services, released a statement Wednesday night. The group gained national attention after the passage of Alabama’s new abortion law.

"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," Executive Director Amanda Reyes said in the statement.

https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/2019 ... issed.html


It's the "felony murder" legal doctrine, which says that if you commit a serious crime, you are responsible for the effects of that crime, even indirect effects when it was someone else who actually caused the injury.

This type of legal doctrine is common in several states.

I personally strongly disagree with this type of legal logic in general, or at least 85% disagree with it.


I do think women have certain special obligations when they're pregnant though, to ensure the safety and wellbeing of their fetus, and stay out of harms way.
It would sort of be like a woman who brings her infant with her while committing a bank robbery, and then in the ensuing gun fight with police the infant is hit. (sort of an extreme example, but you see the point)

But it seems many Women's Rights supporters don't like this because there's too much of a parallel to the issue of abortion here. If we recognize that someone can be punished for causing the death of an unborn developing human being, and that someone who is punished can be the mother who is pregnant, then it's really not such a big logical stretch to say that the presumptions underpinning the legalization of abortion are under threat also.

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