THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 23, 1996 TAG: 9608230062
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 51 lines
The case of a slain Petersburg woman who was nine months pregnant is a good example of why Virginia needs to make feticide - the murder of a fetus - a crime in Virginia, proponents of such legislation argue.
Such a law was considered during the 1996 session of the General Assembly but was continued to the next session.
State Sen. Mark L. Earley, R-Chesapeake, proposed a bill that would make the ``willfull, deliberate killing of a conceived, unborn but viable human offspring of another female, other than by lawful abortion . . . murder in the first degree.''
Without that legislation, the only possible charges against a defendant who kills a pregnant woman relate to the mother's death, Earley said. The defendant cannot be held accountable for the death of the fetus. Because there has not been a live birth, there can be no prosecution for murder of the unborn child, under common law.
``I just don't think anyone ought to get a free murder,'' Earley said Thursday. ``I think this gives a clear example of why it's necessary. It's the ultimate slap in the face to the people of the commonwealth not to be able to proceed with a murder charge against this defendant.''
About 24 states have laws that treat the killing of an unborn child as a form of homicide. Mostof the legislation was passed within the past 10 to 15 years, Earley said.
Earley said he proposed the bill at the behest of Chesapeake Commonwealth's Attorney David L. Williams. In 1993, Williams prosecuted a man who strangled a pregnant woman. The victim's family was stunned to learn that the man would be tried for one murder, even though the fetus died too.
Another recent example occurred in the Gilpin Court murders in Richmond, a 1995 case in which two adults and three children were killed along with the unborn child of a young teenager who was two months from giving birth. Authorities were not able to bring a sixth murder charge.
Relatives of the Petersburg woman, Antitca Monquie Hurt, 20, found dead in Prince George County, say she was about two weeks from giving birth. A male acquaintance, Malcolm T. Ruffin, has been charged with first-degree murder in that killing.
Under Earley's proposed legislation, prosecutors could try a suspect for two murders if a pregnant woman and her ``viable'' fetus died.
The proposal passed the Senate by a wide margin and was sent to the House, where it became mired in the House Courts of Justice Committee. ``Some people felt that to give any status to the unborn child in the law was to ultimately erode the law of Roe v. Wade,'' Earley said.
The House has to act on the carryover legislation by Dec. 20.
KEYWORDS: MURDER ABANDONED BABIES AND CHILDREN
ARREST by CNB