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https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/07/03/alabama-da-drops-charges-against-marshae-jones-manslaughter-case/1642329001/
e attorney Andrew Skier, who has no ties to the case, said it appeared "whoever indicted this case didn't read this statute."
On Monday, Jones' lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the charge. Mark White, a high-powered Birmingham defense attorney, said the charge made "no rational sense" under Alabama law.
"It is simply unconscionable to prosecute a shooting victim for losing her baby as a result of an unforseeable injury," White's firm White, Arnold & Dowd said in a Monday release. "The charges against Marshae are based on a flawed and contorted theory of criminal liability that simply does not exist under the law. We are asking the Court to dismiss this unreasonable, unfounded, and unjust indictment with prejudice and without delay."
A hearing on the motion had been set for July 9.
Jemison last week told BuzzFeed News that she fired a gun as a "warning shot" after Jones and a group of friends attacked her over a relationship issue involving the father of Jones' child. Jemison said she did not intend to injure anyone.
More: Alabama district attorney may not pursue charges against Marshae Jones, prosecutors say
"When my law partner explained to me what we were dealing with, I had to make them repeat it," White, Jones' lawyer, said Monday. "I didn't believe what they said. It made no rational sense."
White said the last time anyone from law enforcement or prosecution talked with Jones was when she was in the hospital in December, recovering from the shooting and pregnancy loss. Law enforcement spent "15 to 20 minutes" with her in her hospital room.
"That’s the last time anyone from law enforcement or anyone in the prosecution had any discussion with her until Wednesday when she was asked to come to the Pleasant Grove police station," White said. "She went with her 6-year-old daughter and they locked her up and put a $50,000 bond on her, which is off the bond schedule in the state of Alabama. It’s fair to say she’s devastated."
Jones' family had to be called to pick up her daughter, White said.
White questioned why Jones wasn't asked to testify before the grand jury as the shooting victim in the case.
"They could have given my client the courtesy of saying, 'Would you like to tell the grand jury your story?'" White said. "The grand jury procedure is easily manipulated. In December, we now know the local law enforcement developed their own narrative and decided they would advance the proposition that this victim of a shooting somehow could be a defendant, not a victim. I don’t know why they did that, but it’s obviously for their own personal or political reasons. ... It would have been nice to ask the victim what happened."
AL.com on Friday reported that Jones' prosecution is not the first time Pleasant Grove law enforcement has ignited controversy over cases involving pregnant women. In 2016, Pleasant Grove police publicly clashed with UAB hospital, with the police department insisting a pregnant drug user be jailed "to prevent any further damage," to the unborn child, Lt. Danny Reid said at the time. AL.com reported UAB doctors refused to discharge the woman, who was undergoing drug treatment.
Reid has not yet returned an Advertiser request for comment.
The Advertiser on Friday also reached out to Bessemer Cutoff District Attorney Lynneice Washington's office. Washington, who was out of town at the time of Jones' arrest, released a statement Thursday through her office, urging caution as the office had not yet decided whether or not to pursue the manslaughter charge.
"Foremost, it should be stated that this is a truly tragic case, resulting in the death of an unborn child," the release stated. "We feel sympathy for the families involved, including Ms. Jones, who lost her unborn child. The fact that this tragedy was 100% avoidable makes this case even more disheartening."
District Attorney Lynneice Washington's office is currently weighing whether or not to pursue charges against Marshae Jones.
Abortion and reproductive rights groups last week quickly raised Jones' case as a cause célèbre, marking it as an example of prosecutorial overreach on the heels of a near-total abortion ban in Alabama. The new law, which could go into effect in November but is expected to remain tied up in federal lawsuits, would criminalize anyone who performs an abortion in the state. Though the law does not criminalize women who receive abortion care, opponents of the legislation argued it would create a slippery slope for criminalizing reproductive rights and pregnancy loss.
"The prosecution of Marshae Jones is absolutely reprehensible," said Staci Fox, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeast, in a statement. "It is more proof that Alabama will do everything in its power to criminalize pregnancy – especially for Black women."
Jones' case, however, is not directly related to the abortion ban.
Alabama in the past has used new legislation to pursue prosecutions of pregnant women. In 2006, state lawmakers passed a chemical endangerment law intended to prosecute adults who expose children to volatile meth labs. Prosecutors later used the law to charge pregnant women who were drug users, as seen in the 2016 Pleasant Grove case.
DA Lynneice Washington's office has tried to push back against those tying the Jones case to reproductive rights. In its Thursday statement, it clarified that the shooting happened well-before the abortion law was passed.
In an impassioned speech at an unrelated event this weekend, Washington hit back at critics.
"For those of you who called my office and disrupted, cursed, disrespected, because I was not present, I was not in the state? Shame, shame on you," Washington said. "I took an oath to serve. I am a black woman in black skin, so don't tell me how I don't appreciate the sensitivity of a woman and the rights of women."
Y'all buy those labels, I was born supreme
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