LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (BP)–The first case brought under Arkansas’ Fetal Protection Act has resulted in a conviction, CNSNews.com reported.
A jury in Little Rock found a man guilty of capital murder Jan. 8 for hiring several other people to beat his pregnant girlfriend “so she would not mess up his life,” according to the prosecutor. The unborn baby, almost full-term, died.
The defendant, 30-year-old Erik Bullock, was sentenced to life in prison.
Arkansas’ fetal protection law, passed in 1999, allows murder charges if a baby in at least the 12th week of gestation dies as the result of a violent crime.
The teenagers hired by Bullock to beat the pregnant women are now awaiting trial on capital murder charges, which carry the death penalty, CNSNews.com reported.
As it turns out, Bullock was not the father of the baby after all, according to DNA tests performed after the baby’s death.
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Reported by CNSNews.com. Used by permission.
