Brittany Watts, 34, miscarried at nearly 22 weeks.
A grand jury decided Thursday not to indict an Ohio woman on allegations that she mishandled the remains of a fetus after miscarrying her pregnancy at home.
The case had alarmed reproductive rights groups and legal experts who said there is no clear guidance on how to handle an at-home miscarriage and that police and local prosecutors overreached by charging the woman, who is Black, with “abuse of a corpse.”
Brittany Watts, 34, of Warren, was arrested last October and pleaded not guilty to the charge. If convicted, she would have faced up to a year in prison. Because the grand jury decided not to indict, the case has been dropped.
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A subsequent autopsy showed that the baby had died before being born due to a spontaneous miscarriage and that no illicit drugs were present. Watts was arrested two weeks later on accusations of “abusing a corpse.”
There is a movie about jury nullification, ya? I tried looking it up but I can’t remember enough details. It’s from the mid 90s. About a gun case. Maybe helpful and required watching? Maybe I am off.
I am happy to hear she wasn’t tried but it’s terrible it got this far 😠
Assistant prosecutor Lewis Guarnieri argued to have the case move forward, which was agreed to by Warren Municipal Court Judge Terry Ivanchak.
Name and shame these monsters.
“Decided.” I wonder how much deliberating they actually had to do, or if they immediately just turned around and said fuck that shit.
Removed by mod
What a shit hole state
Right up there with Texas, Florida, and Alabama.
Let’s not forget Tennessee and all the other heartbeat states
If you ever get called up for the jury and get one of these cases… Remember that (in the US at least) there is a concept called “jury nullification” that you should not mention at the courthouse but can absolutely act upon.
no illicit drugs were present
I’m deeply afraid that this might have turned out differently if she had even something as simple as cannabis in her system.
