A Mexican woman, Roxanna Ruiz has been sentenced to more than six years in prison for killing a man while defending herself when he attacked and raped her in 2021. She can still appeal the verdict.
While the Mexico State court found that Ruiz had been raped, it said the 23-year-old was guilty of homicide with “excessive use of legitimate defense”, adding that hitting the man in the head would have been enough to defend herself. Ruiz was also ordered to pay more than $16,000 in reparations to the family of the man who raped her.
The court said that it took into consideration the woman’s “vulnerability as a woman and as an indigenous person” in its sentencing.
“It was my life or his life”, the woman said. “I only wanted to defend my life from a rapist”, she said, adding that she acted out of fear.
Credible News reports that in May 2021, while having a beer with a friend, Ruiz, a single mother from the state of Oaxaca, met a man she had seen around the neighborhood. After hanging out, he offered to walk her home and later asked to stay the night because it was late and he was far from home.
Ruiz agreed to let him sleep on a mattress on the floor. But while she slept he climbed onto her bed, hit her, tore off her clothes and raped her. Ruiz fought back, hitting him in the nose. He threatened to kill her, and in the struggle to free herself she killed him in self-defense.
In a panic, Ruiz put the man’s body in a bag and dragged it out to the street where passing police arrested her.
Ruiz had already spent nine months in pre-trial detention before being released for the duration of the trial.
Government data shows that nearly half of Mexican women have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime.
