Prosecutors in Colorado have decided to junk the murder charge against a 34-year-old Colorado woman who was accused of cutting a baby from an expectant mother’s womb.
Boulder Country District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Catherine Olquin has confirmed that the prosecutors will not charge Dynel Lane, 34, with murder, although she did not provide the reason why or what charges the suspect will now face.
District Attorney Stan Garnett is expected to release more information today about the decision not to charge the suspect with murder.
The coroner’s office is also set to release the findings of an autopsy performed on the baby.
Lane was arrested after she reportedly attacked Michelle Wilkins, 26, and extracted her unborn baby girl.
Police investigators said Lane lured Wilkins to her home in Longmont last March 18 with an online advertisement that offered baby clothes.
Lane’s husband found the infant in a bathtub and rushed the child to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Wilkins survived the attack and was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday.
The incident, however, revived the questions on whether or not fetus can be considered human being and, thus, covered by rights under the criminal law.
Colorado is one of the 12 states that do not have laws making the violent death of an unborn child a homicide.
Advocates also raised the issue on the need for a fetal homicide law.