Charge tossed in abortion shooting case

[Rosalinda]

Is this an example of the constitutional right to abortion superceding laws against killing? Had this child been born long enough to breathe it would have been murder but a few hours from birth he/she is still not granted the dignity due to any human being. Leave her to heaven.

…
Skinner, a single mother with two small children, called police on her cell phone at 4 a.m. on Feb. 23 to report that she had been shot by a man and was lying in the parking lot of an automobile dealership on Main Street. Police found her bleeding from the abdomen and rushed her to the hospital, where she recovered but her fetus was pronounced dead.
Police doubted her story from the start. After a few days, they said, Skinner admitted she had not wanted the baby and had shot herself, on her due date, after feeling contractions.
Prosecutors decided they could not charge Skinner with murder because the fetus had not yet drawn a breath. So they tried “producing an abortion or miscarriage,” a class 4 felony dating back to the 1960s…

timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149191254707&path=!news&s=1045855934842

 

[Karin]

*Currently, at least 36 states have fetal homicide laws - 31 are state statutes and three are case law. The states include: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. *
ncsl.org/programs/health/fethom.htm

 

[Rosalinda]

Thank you Karin for the link. After reviewing the Code of Virginia I now understand the penalty only applies to “another” who kills the fetus. Is it possible the woman knew she could willfully, deliberately, maliciously kill her child and it would still be lawful?

If so, that would definitely be premeditated murder. God have mercy on this tortured, misguided soul.

§ 18.2-32.2. Killing a fetus; penalty.
A. Any person who unlawfully, willfully, deliberately, maliciously and with premeditation** kills the fetus of another** is guilty of a Class 2 felony.
B. Any person who unlawfully, willfully, deliberately and maliciously kills the fetus of another is guilty of a felony punishable by confinement in a state correctional facility for not less than five nor more than 40 years.
(2004, cc. 1023, 1026.)