02-18-2016, 11:30 PM
OP UPDATE
BOULDER, Colo. -- Jurors in the trial of a woman charged with cutting an unborn baby out of another woman's womb will not hear testimony about the cause and manner of the baby's death, the judge ruled Thursday.
Attorneys for defendant Dynel Lane argued the information would be unduly prejudicial to her, the Longmont Times-Call reported. Jurors were not in the courtroom when Judge Maria Berkenkotter heard the arguments and made her ruling.
Lane is charged with attempted first-degree murder, assault and unlawful termination of a pregnancy in the March 2015 attack on Michelle Wilkins in Longmont.
Defense attorney Jennifer Beck argued Lane wasn't charged with any crime against the unborn girl, so the fetus was not legally a victim and details of the death weren't relevant to the case.
District Attorney Stan Garnett said earlier that prosecutors couldn't charge Lane in the baby's death because a coroner found no evidence the fetus lived outside the womb.
That angered conservatives in the Colorado Legislature, who had previously tried but failed to enact a law making it a crime to kill a fetus. Colorado's law against unlawful termination of a pregnancy was a compromise that stemmed from earlier debates on the issue.
Full story: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jurors-in-st...-of-death/
BOULDER, Colo. -- Jurors in the trial of a woman charged with cutting an unborn baby out of another woman's womb will not hear testimony about the cause and manner of the baby's death, the judge ruled Thursday.
Attorneys for defendant Dynel Lane argued the information would be unduly prejudicial to her, the Longmont Times-Call reported. Jurors were not in the courtroom when Judge Maria Berkenkotter heard the arguments and made her ruling.
Lane is charged with attempted first-degree murder, assault and unlawful termination of a pregnancy in the March 2015 attack on Michelle Wilkins in Longmont.
Defense attorney Jennifer Beck argued Lane wasn't charged with any crime against the unborn girl, so the fetus was not legally a victim and details of the death weren't relevant to the case.
District Attorney Stan Garnett said earlier that prosecutors couldn't charge Lane in the baby's death because a coroner found no evidence the fetus lived outside the womb.
That angered conservatives in the Colorado Legislature, who had previously tried but failed to enact a law making it a crime to kill a fetus. Colorado's law against unlawful termination of a pregnancy was a compromise that stemmed from earlier debates on the issue.
Full story: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jurors-in-st...-of-death/