Amari Marsh called 911 during a miscarriage, not knowing she was being investigated and would be later arrested during her second year at South Carolina State University in May 2023.
“I COULDN’T BREATHE,” said Marsh now 23.
The next day she woke up in a hospital. Then a few weeks later, she received a call saying that she could pick up her daughter’s ashes.
Marsh still did not know that she was being criminally investigated. Yet three months after her loss, Marsh was charged for murder/homicide by child abuse, law enforcement records show.
She spent 22 days at the Orangeburg-Calhoun Regional Detention Center, where she was initially held without bond, facing 20 years to life in prison.
This August, 13 months after she was released from jail to house arrest with an ankle monitor, Marsh was cleared by a grand jury. Her case will not proceed to trial.
Her story raises questions about the state of reproductive rights in this country, disparities in health care, and pregnancy rights and liabilities. This case shows how pregnancy loss is being criminalized around the country, said U. S. Rep. James Clyburn, a Democrat and graduate of South Carolina State University whose congressional district includes Orangeburg.
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