I’ve been somewhat reluctant to jump on the bandwagon supporting Marshae Jones, the Alabama woman who is currently facing an indictment for manslaughter after another woman shot her in the stomach, mortally wounding her unborn daughter. For those who don’t know, the woman who shot her, Ebony Jemison, was originally charged with manslaughter—only to have a grand jury refuse to indict her after somehow finding that Jemison fired in self-defense.
There’s simply too much that we don’t know about this case—and there was a very real possibility that Jemison might really have had a valid claim of self-defense. Notice I said “was.” That’s because Jemison’s mother may have inadvertently knocked the bottom out of that claim in an interview with The Washington Post. She claimed that the shot that hit Jones in the stomach and ultimately killed Jones’ unborn daughter was merely a warning shot.
In a phone interview late Thursday, Ebony Jemison’s mother, Earka, corroborated the police account. She told The Washington Post that her daughter was cleared by a grand jury June 10 when evidence and testimony was presented to suggest that Jones started the fight, causing Ebony to fire a warning shot out of fear.
Jones worked at the same company as Ebony Jemison and the fetus’s father, and tension developed between the two women, according to Jemison’s mother.
Things boiled over on Dec. 4, when, she says, Jones, who was driving with friends at the time, spotted Jemison and leaped out of the vehicle to attack her. Jones’s friends left the car soon afterward and began to move toward the scuffle, she said.
“Ebony was afraid for her life and reached in her purse for the gun,” Earka Jemison said, adding that her daughter had a license to carry the weapon. “She tried to fire a warning shot to get away from her.”
But the shot — which Ebony Jemison’s mother says was aimed at the ground — ricocheted into Jones.
Wow. This changes everything. The picture I initially got when prosecutors claimed Jones continued to “press the fight” even after Jemison tried to get away is that Jones was trying to barge into Jemison’s car—in which case she probably would have had little recourse but to take drastic measures to protect herself. But if I’m reading this right, it hadn’t escalated to that point. Which meant Jemison had other options short of drawing her gun.
Police in Pleasant Grove, the Birmingham suburb where the scuffle took place, have maintained from the beginning that Jones bore at least some responsibility for this situation. They argued that a woman who was five months pregnant had absolutely no business initiating a fight with another person. Well, by that logic, Jemison had absolutely no business pulling her gun when she had other options available. And even if Alabama is a “stand your ground” state, there is no way in the world it gives you carte blanche to fire a mere warning shot anywhere near a woman when you damn well know she’s pregnant. And if it does, something is very wrong.
Even if Jones did start the fight, the more I think about it, manslaughter is entirely too harsh a charge. This sounds more like reckless endangerment. And if you believe Jemison’s mother, then her daughter ought to face charges of reckless endangerment as well. I repeat—how do you get more reckless than firing a warning shot anywhere near a woman who is that far into her pregnancy?
Lynniece Washington, the DA for the Bessemer Division of the Jefferson County DA’s office, is taking a look at the case, and gave some pretty strong indications that Jones could face a lesser charge—or possibly not face any charges at all. Well, Lynniece, in light of this new information, you need to seriously consider charging Jemison as well. Her mother may have torpedoed any claim her daughter has to acting in self-defense.