COLUMBUS, Mississippi (AP) — A Mississippi judge has dismissed murder charges against a woman who gave birth to a stillborn child and was accused of using cocaine during her pregnancy.
But Assistant District Attorney Mark Jackson tells WCBI-TV in Columbus that he’ll present manslaughter charges to the next grand jury when it meets in July.
Circuit Judge Jim Kitchens dismissed the charges Thursday against Rennie Gibbs.
Gibbs, now 24, originally was indicted for murder when she was 16 in 2006 when her child was stillborn. Prosecutors argued her cocaine use caused the death.
Kitchens says the murder statutes don’t apply under previous state Supreme Court rulings.
Defense attorneys argued prosecutors want to try Gibbs for a crime that does not exist and a crime that would be unconstitutional if it did exist.