Mexico Prosecutors Drop Case Against Woman Sentenced For Killing Man As He Raped Her
Roxana Ruiz, 23, was sentenced to more than six years in prison and ordered to pay more than $16,000 in restitution after killing her attacker in 2021.
MEGAN JANETSKY
May 21, 2023, 05:05 PM EDT
Roxana Ruiz shouts during a march in memory of Diana Velazquez, who was making a call outside her home in 2017 when she was raped and killed in Chimalhuacan, Mexico in 2022. Ruiz, who killed a man when he attacked and raped her in 2021, was sentenced to more than six years in prison.VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican prosecutors announced Saturday night that they are withdrawing a case against a woman who was sentenced to six years in prison for killing a man as he raped and attacked her.
In a ruling last week that touched off a public outcry, a court in Mexico State said that while it agreed 23-year-old Roxana Ruiz was raped in 2021, it found her guilty of homicide with “excessive use of legitimate defense.” It also ordered Ruiz to pay more than $16,000 in reparations to the family of her attacker.
Feminist groups, which have supported Ruiz’s defense, angrily protested, saying the ruling was criminalizing survivors of sexual violence while protecting perpetrators in a country with high levels of gender-based violence and femicides. Protesters in Mexico City carried signs reading “Defending my life isn’t a crime.”
An activist takes part in a protest in support of Roxana Ruiz Santiago after she was accused of homicide.PEDRO PARDO VIA GETTY IMAGES
Ruiz, an Indigenous woman and single mother, told reporters after the court’s ruling that she had received death threats because of the case and that she worried for her family’s safety, particularly the life of her 4-year-old son.
More:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/roxana-ruiz-mexico-rape-case-dropped-prosecutors_n_646a83d8e4b0005c605a19c1
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