Woman Jailed For More Than Six Years For Killing Her Rapist

A Mexican woman who killed a man in 2021 while defending herself after he attacked and raped her was given a sentence of six years and 2months in prison; her legal team branded the judgment “discriminatory” and vowed to contest it.

The court acknowledged that the woman, named only as Roxana N, acted in self-defense when she killed her attacker in 2021 but said she used excessive force.

The woman, 23, first knocked the man unconscious, then strangled him, and finally tried to dismember his body. She kept the body for at least 20 hours before putting it in a plastic bag on the street.

Experts and feminist organizations expressed their outrage at the verdict against Roxana Ruiz, claiming that it illustrates the severity of gender-based violence and Mexico’s dismal track record of prosecuting those who commit sexual assault.

“It would be a bad precedent if this sentence were to hold. It’s sending the message to women that, you know what, the law says you can defend yourself, but only to a point,” said Ángel Carrera, her defense lawyer. “He raped you, but you don’t have the right to do anything.”

While the Mexico State court found Monday 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.

In May 2021, Ruiz was working selling french fries in Nezahualcoyotl, one of the 11 municipalities in Mexico State with an ongoing gender alert for femicides and another one for forced disappearances of women.

While having a beer with a friend, Ruiz, an Indigenous Mixteca woman and 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, according to Ruiz’s legal defense. 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.

The 23-year-old was found guilty of homicide with “excessive use of legitimate defense,” according to the Mexico State court, which found Ruiz had been raped but that punching the man in the head would have been sufficient self-protection. Ruiz was also mandated to make restitution of more than $16,000 to the man’s family who committed the rape.

In May 2021, Ruiz was employed as a fry salesperson in Nezahualcoyotl, one of the 11 towns in the Mexican State that were under a gender alert for femicides and another for women being forcedly abducted.

Ruiz, an Indigenous Mixteca lady from the state of Oaxaca and a single mother, met a man she had seen around the neighborhood while drinking beer with a friend. He offered to walk her home after they spent some time together but subsequently asked to stay the night because it was late and he was far from his house.

He was granted permission by Ruiz to rest on a floor mattress. Ruiz’s legal defense claims that while she was sleeping, he went onto her bed, slapped her, tore off her clothes, and then sexually assaulted her. Ruiz retaliated by punching him in the nose. In the battle to free herself, she killed him in self-defense when he threatened to kill her.

Ruiz wrapped the man’s body in a bag and hauled it to the street, where she was apprehended by the police.

Carrera claimed that despite reporting the incident to the police, a forensic examination—which is an essential step in pursuing claims of sexual assault—was never conducted. Instead, he said, an officer retorted that she presumably first desired intercourse with the man before changing her mind.

In an interview with the AP last year, Ruiz said, “I regret what I did, but if I hadn’t done it, I would be dead today. It’s evident that the state wants to shut us up, wants us to be submissive, wants us closed up inside, wants us dead.”

Women’s rights organizations have regularly charged Mexican authorities with victimizing survivors again and failing to consider gender when making decisions.

Ruiz was imprisoned for nine months on charges of murder in excess of justifiable self-defense before being released to await trial.

According to government statistics, sexual violence against women has occurred in over half of Mexican women.