Mexican woman who killed a man while he was raping her is sentenced to 6 years in prison

• Roxana Ruiz killed a man while he was raping her.
• A Mexican court sentenced her to 6 years in prison.
• Activists say it’s discrimination and she acted in self-defense.

Roxana Ruiz killed a man while he was raping her. Her case has made headlines because, despite being a victim, she will have to spend six years behind bars in Mexico for defending herself.

According to The Associated Press, the Mexican woman who killed a man in self-defense when he raped her in 2021, was sentenced to more than six years in prison. It’s a decision that her legal defense described as «discriminatory» and promised to appeal on Tuesday.

Mexican woman who killed her rapist faces 6 years in prison

The ruling against Roxana Ruiz drew the ire of experts and feminist groups who said it spoke to the depth of gender-based violence and Mexico’s «poor» record in bringing perpetrators of sexual violence to justice.

“It would be a bad precedent if this sentence were upheld. It’s sending the message to women that, you know what, the law says you can defend yourself, but only up to a certain point,” said Ángel Carrera, her defense attorney. «He raped you, but you have no right to do anything.»

Ruiz was also ordered to pay reparations to the family of the man who raped her

The AP stresses that although the court in Mexico determined Monday that Ruiz had been raped, they said the 23-year-old was guilty of manslaughter with «excessive use of self-defense,» adding that hitting the man on 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 her rapist. In May 2021, Ruiz worked selling French fries in Nezahualcóyotl, one of the 11 municipalities in the State of Mexico with a gender alert for femicides and another for the forced disappearance of women.

While she was sleeping he climbed on her bed, hit her and ripped off her clothes

Over a beer with a friend, Roxana, a Mixtec indigenous woman and single mother from Oaxaca, met a man she had seen around the neighborhood. After hanging out, he offered to walk her to her house and then 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 into her bed, hit her, tore off her clothes and raped her, according to her legal defense. She fought back, punching him in the nose. He threatened to kill her, and in the struggle to get free she killed him in self-defense.

Roxana put the man’s body in a bag and dragged it to the street

In a panic, Roxana put the man’s body in a bag and dragged it out into the street where passing police arrested her. Despite telling the police that she had been raped, one officer responded that she probably wanted to have sex with the man at first and then she changed her mind.

«I regret what I did, but if I hadn’t done it today I would be dead,» Ruiz told the Associated Press in an interview, adding: «It is evident that the State wants to silence us, it wants us to be submissive, it wants us locked up inside, it wants us dead. Defending my life is not a crime.»