Pregnant Woman’s Death Will Be Prosecuted as Double Homicide: LRPD
Dekeesha McPhearson, 35, was killed in a shooting on October 1 in Little Rock; according to KARK, she was pregnant when she died.
LRPD has not counted her death as a double homicide due to the FBI reporting standards that the police department follows; those reporting standards do not count unborn children as murder victims.
However, the LRPD told KARK that McPhearson’s killer will face two counts of murder if and when the killer is arrested.
That’s because of Arkansas’ fetal homicide law.
In 1999 Family Council worked with state legislators to pass Act 1273, the Fetal Protection Act.
The law made it a crime to injure or kill an unborn child who is more than 12 weeks gestation. A few months later, authorities used that law to prosecute a group of men who were hired to attack a pregnant woman and kill her unborn baby.
In 2013 we worked with lawmakers to expand the fetal homicide law to ensure it protected unborn children at every stage of development, starting from the moment of conception.
Laws like these promote the sanctity human life and help establish legally that unborn children are living human beings — something that could play a role in overturning Roe v. Wade.