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A month or so after Alabama passed significant Pro-Life legislation, a woman who lost her baby was indicted with manslaughter charges. The pro-abortion crowd took to Twitter to show that what we called fearmongering was a valid concern after all. A woman was shot while pregnant, lost the baby, and was charged with manslaughter. The shooter had charges dismissed. Only the facts of this case do not support the Left’s narratives. The incident happened in December of 2018, and the process has involved grand juries.
AL: Woman indicted in shooting death of her unborn child; charges against shooter dismissed
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 Dec. 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.
“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.”
This is not an instance of police fishing for someone to blame for this tragic incident and failing with the shooter and picking the next target. Rather, the police never seemed to think the incident was Jemison’s fault.
12/6/18: Woman charged in Pleasant Grove shooting that killed unborn baby girl
Reid said “the mother’s involvement and culpability will be presented to a grand jury” to determine if she also will be charged in the incident.
He said the fight stemmed over the unborn baby’s father. “When a 5-month pregnant woman initiates a fight and attacks another person, I believe some responsibility lies with her as to any injury to her unborn child,’’ Reid said. “That child is dependent on its mother to try to keep it from harm, and she shouldn’t seek out unnecessary physical altercations.”
Lt. Reid has kept a consistent tale as to what happened during this incident since the beginning. The grand jury evidently believed the fault of the incident rested on Marshae Jones.
Issues at Play
Self defense and stand your ground would be the Left’s go-to, if the incident were not between to black women. Alabama law declares that a person has no duty to retreat when faced with attack. Jemison, in this instance, was found to be attacked by a grand jury. Thus, they found that her use of force was justified in defense of her own well-being.
The second issue worth addressing is the legitimacy of a grand jury. It was a grand jury that indicted and dismissed charges in this incident. A grand jury is when a person’s own peers determine that their is enough evidence to indict a person. The Left has a problem with grand juries, if we go back to when a grand jury found that there was no question as to whether Officer Darren Wilson violated the law as it related to the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson. But would they rather it had been a preliminary hearing?
Manslaughter Defined under Alabama Statute
(3) He or she commits or attempts to commit arson in the first degree, burglary in the first or second degree, escape in the first degree, kidnapping in the first degree, rape in the first degree, robbery in any degree, sodomy in the first degree, aggravated child abuse under Section 26-15-3.1 , or any other felony clearly dangerous to human life and, in the course of and in furtherance of the crime that he or she is committing or attempting to commit, or in immediate flight therefrom, he or she, or another participant if there be any, causes the death of any person.
Then there is the life issue which sensationalized this story to a national level. The people of Alabama are indicting Jones because they found enough evidence to accuse her of recklessly endangering her unborn daughter in a way that resulted in her untimely death. The pro-abortionists complain that it is backwards for the “victim” to be charged. Lt. Reid was correctly paraphrasing Alabama law when stating that the fault of any death rested on the instigator, and further explained that an unborn child is entirely dependent on the mother; therefore the mother has a duty of care, a common law doctrine about preventing foreseeable harm. The law is operating under the premise that an unborn baby is a human being, which is what really bothers the pro-abortionists. They couldn’t care any less that a grand jury found that Jones attacked Jemison, thus absolving her of the unborn child’s death. By the legal definition of manslaughter, Jones, being the instigator is (allegedly) responsible for any deaths that ensue. Unlike New York and Illinois,
Alabama recognizes life in the womb and has homicide charges as it relates to these incidents. Because Alabama law specifically blames the instigator for resulting deaths, the indictment was rightfully rendered by the grand jury.
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