Murder retrial of Salvadoran woman over stillborn son to continue

https://news.yahoo.com/retrial-resume-salvadoran-woman-homicide-120131111.html

By Nelson Renteria
,Reuters•August 15, 2019

The retrial of a Salvadoran woman convicted of aggravated homicide after a stillbirth adjourned without a verdict on Thursday, in a closely watched case that could overturn a 30-year prison sentence handed down after prosecutors said she had induced an abortion.

El Salvador bans abortion in all circumstances.

The judge ordered a recess Thursday afternoon after a witness for the prosecution failed to appear.

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Hernandez has served three years of the three-decade sentence that was handed down. Hernandez had said that she was unaware of her pregnancy when she delivered a stillborn son in 2016.

She again stated her innocence in the retrial, which began in mid-July but went on recess due to the illness of a witness. Hernandez, a domestic worker who was studying to be a nurse, has said she was impregnated after being raped by a gang member.

"I only wish to tell you that I am an innocent girl. I have always told you that I am innocent," the defendant Evelyn Hernandez, 21, told reporters as she entered the court."I only wish to tell you that I am an innocent girl. I have always told you that I am innocent," the defendant Evelyn Hernandez, 21, told reporters as she entered the court.

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Any intentional termination of a pregnancy in El Salvador can be prosecuted as a crime, including stillbirths due to home delivery or abortions induced because of medical emergencies.

Some 147 Salvadoran women were sentenced to up to 40 years in prison in such cases between 2000 and 2014, according to the Citizen Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion.

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