A shocking decision

Death of baby cut from womb doesn’t lead to murder charge
OneNews 28 March 2015
The Colorado woman accused of cutting the baby from an expectant mother’s belly will not face murder charges in the gruesome attack that revived the highly charged debate over when a foetus can legally be considered a human being.

There is no evidence the baby girl lived outside the womb after Michelle Wilkins was attacked with a knife and the child removed, Boulder County coroner Emma Hall said today.

Dynel Lane, 34, is accused of luring Wilkins, 26, to her home with a Craigslist ad selling baby clothes. Wilkins, who was about eight months pregnant, survived and left the hospital this week.

Prosecutors planned to file charges against Lane today but have said they won’t include murder. Under Colorado law, someone can face that charge in the death of a fetus only if there is evidence a baby survived apart from its mother.

The decision angered some Republican lawmakers in a state that ranks among the 12 without a foetal homicide law. The Legislature voted down such a measure in 2013 over fears it would interfere with abortion rights, and voters overwhelmingly agreed when they rejected a similar ballot measure in 2014.

But Senate President Bill Cadman announced today that legislation was being drafted to extend legal protections to unborn children.

“This was a child. A child was murdered,” he said in statement. “That Coloradans have no way to hold the murderer responsible, or deliver justice for the victims, is a gap in Colorado’s justice system which can no longer be ignored.”
http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/death-baby-cut-womb-doesn-t-lead-murder-charge-6271834