A Starr County, Texas, grand jury last month indicted a 26-year-old woman, Lizelle Herrera, on one count of murder in connection with "a self-induced abortion." As Starr County District Attorney Gocha Allen Ramirez conceded yesterday, no such charge exists under state law. Yet somehow Ramirez's office presented that chimerical charge to the grand jury, which resulted in Herrera's unlawful arrest last Thursday. She spent two nights in jail before she was released on Saturday after posting a $500,000 bond.
In a press release he posted on Facebook yesterday, Ramirez announced that he would "immediately dismiss the indictment against Ms. Herrera," because "it is clear that Ms. Herrera cannot and should not be prosecuted for the allegation against her." He reached that conclusion after "reviewing applicable Texas law," which you might think his office would have done before seeking an indictment. Its failure to do so, aside from its implications for the abortion debate, was an egregious example of prosecutorial misconduct that flouted the rule of law and violated Herrera's constitutional rights.
