Posted on 03/04/2006 7:27:33 AM PST by wagglebee
SUFFOLK — The defense attorney for a woman accused of shooting herself in the stomach and killing her unborn child says an abortion charge won’t hold up in court.
Suffolk’s lead prosecutor says his office is still investigating the crime.
Tammy Skinner, 22, is charged with inducing an abortion and filing a false police report. Prosecutors have already said they plan to drop a firearms charge because it doesn’t apply.
Virginia Beach lawyer Kevin Martingayle, who met with Skinner on Friday, said he doesn’t think the abortion charge applies either.
“All of the provisions of the law are aimed at third parties, not at pregnant mothers,” Martingayle said. “We do not read laws broadly to express outrage. We don’t assume anything is illegal.”
Commonwealth’s Attorney Phil Ferguson said he won’t make a final decision until all the evidence is in.
“I have said from Day One, there are a lot of technical, legal issues that need to be looked at,” Ferguson said Friday. “We are investigating all of those things. This is a stretch. Whatever we feel is appropriate, we’ll move ahead with.”
Skinner’s next court appearance is Friday.
If prosecutors go forward with the abortion charge, it will be the first time in this area and probably the first time in the state.
Police arrested and charged Skinner the day after she got out of the hospital, where she underwent a Caesarean section to deliver the baby and surgery for the bullet wound.
Skinner, who has two other children, called police at 4 a.m. Feb. 23. She told them she had been shot in the stomach but said she couldn’t remember where she was shot or who shot her.
The baby girl, who was expected to be born that day, died.
Prosecutors have previously said that the state’s fetal homicide law, adopted in 2004, does not apply because of the way it’s worded. It refers to taking the life of the “fetus of another.”
The abortion law that Ferguson is using doesn’t apply either, Martingayle said. Eventually, he said, the incident could change some state laws, but they can’t be applied retroactively.
“This is an unusual situation,” Ferguson said. “It involves a statute that has other ramifications to it. We may be making the law.”
Marie Walls, senior assistant commonwealth’s attorney, said prosecutors are striving to make certain that charges will stand up all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The baby’s funeral will be at 1 p.m. today at New Mount Joy Food for Living Ministries.
In her obituary, she’s referred to as “Little Angel.”
“I understand that people feel moral outrage over this,” Martingayle said. “And there is likely to be some criminal punishment. But perhaps she’s been punished enough.”
Well I don't even NEED coffee.
And something about this story stinks real bad; if she was going to abort her baby, why did she shoot herself to do it?
re: coffee - It's a comfort thing. :)
And, I suspect she may have killed the baby to exact revenge on its father - they were apparently having problems.
Excerpt: She told WAVY-TV on Wednesday that trying to take care of two small girls, ages 1 and 4, and having an abusive boyfriend drove her to abort her unborn, third child.
● The law covers the "child in utero," defined as "a member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb." The law explicitly provides that it does not apply to any abortion to which a woman has consented, to any act of the mother herself (legal or illegal), or to any form of medical treatment. The National Right to Life Committee strongly supported enactment of the law because it achieved other pro-life purposes that are worthwhile in their own right: The protection of unborn children from acts of violence other than abortion, the recognition that unborn children may be victims of such violent criminal acts, and the just punishment of those who harm unborn children while engaged in federally prohibited acts of violence.
This is unbelievable...she murdered that baby in cold blood on the day it due to be born! I told my wife that I thought she'd done it the day we first saw it on the news.
Wow, I thought this was sick when I read the first article. Now she may get off... How horrible.
But perhaps she’s been punished enough.”
I don't think so. I fear for her other children and I still wonder whose gun it was and was it legal? So another child is dead and another monster will walk free. Something is dreadfully wrong here.
The charge is practicing medicine without a license.
Mrs VS
Okay, if we can not throw this murderer in prison, let's have her committed to an insane asylum for live for being a danger to both herself and others.
Not only that, but a man has no right whatsoever to protect his unborn child from murder by mother, omg. What is wrong with this thinking??
Thanks for the ping!
I wish the prosecutors the very best of luck and legal skill cleaning up this mess.
With anonymous safe surrender of newborns available in so many states, there's no reason for "inconvenient pregnancy" abortions. None. Using a baseball bat? Shooting yourself? Insanity!
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