Prosecutors withdrawing case against woman sentenced to prison for killing man as he raped and attacked her in Mexico

Mexican prosecutors announced Saturday night that they are withdrawing a case against a woman who was sentenced to six years in prison for killing a man as he raped and attacked her.

In a ruling last week that touched off a public outcry, a court in Mexico State said that while it agreed 23-year-old Roxana Ruiz was raped in 2021, it found her guilty of homicide with "excessive use of legitimate defense." It also ordered Ruiz to pay more than $16,000 in reparations to the family of her attacker.

Feminist groups, which have supported Ruiz's defense, angrily protested, saying the ruling was criminalizing survivors of sexual violence while protecting perpetrators in a country with high levels of gender-based violence and femicides. Protesters in Mexico City carried signs reading "Defending my life isn't a crime."