When we discussed the murder charge being filed in Texas against Lizelle Herrera yesterday, I expressed some serious doubt as to whether such a charge could be sustained for a variety of reasons. As you may recall, Herrera was arrested in Rio Grande City and charged with homicide after engaging in a “self-induced abortion” with the use of abortion pills. Given the specifics of various Texas laws that might be applicable, it simply didn’t look like she would be found culpable. In less than a day, the District Attorney who initially filed the charges seemed to agree and said that the charges will be dropped because “it is not a criminal matter.” (Washington Examiner)
Murder charges against a Texas woman who allegedly committed a “self-induced abortion” will be dropped.
Gocha Allen Ramirez, the district attorney who filed the charges against Lizelle Herrera, announced on Sunday he is filing a motion to dismiss them.
“In reviewing applicable Texas law, it is clear that Ms. Herrera cannot and should not be prosecuted for the allegation against her,” Ramirez said in a press release. Ramirez is the district attorney for Starr, Jim Hogg, and Duval counties.
The DA went a bit further and “expressed support for Herrera’s family,” if not for the suspect herself. He said that his office would “continue to communicate with counsel for Ms. Hererra” to bring this matter to a close.
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So that happened quickly, but we’re now left with even more questions in addition to the ones I posed yesterday which remain unanswered. First of all, a lot of money was donated in a matter of hours to help Herrera make bail and establish a legal defense fund. Will all of the money be returned to the donors? (Minus the amount already charged by the attorney, of course.) Was the money collected in a way that allows for the donors to be identified and receive their refunds?
Also, it’s hard to imagine this arrest not leading to a lawsuit in today’s litigious society. Was that the purpose of this entire exercise all along, or at least part of it? The charges that were filed seemed so clearly preposterous under current Texas laws (a fact that the DA clearly now realizes) that the suspect could well have realized that such a door might be opening.
And that brings us back yet again to the other question I asked yesterday. How did the Sheriff’s office find out about the woman’s decision to take abortion pills? If someone who knows her decided to drop a dime on her and have her arrested, perhaps she might have grounds for a lawsuit, but against the snitch more than the Sheriff’s Department. The Sheriff and the DA might be guilty of incompetence for failing to realize their efforts to prosecute Herrera would be doomed before they even began, but that probably doesn’t even rise to the level of criminal negligence.
But if it was Herrera herself (or some associate acting on her behalf) who tipped off the Sheriff’s office with the intention of being arrested, this entire story turns into something else entirely. All of the parties involved are being rather tight-lipped thus far, but I hope local reporters are on the trail and can straighten this out soon. There’s something about this entire story that just doesn’t smell right. If Lizelle Herrera was sucked into this debacle with no complicity on her part, then she was poorly treated by the legal system. But if there was something else going on in the background along the lines of the scenarios I suggested above, this is a much darker story. And let’s not forget that an unborn baby died in the process, so if this was some sort of stunt, nobody should be made out to be a hero (or heroine) over it.
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