Green Bay News

MILWAUKEE (AP) – An attorney for a Milwaukee Police officer fired for inappropriately frisking a mentally ill black man before he killed him tried to convince police commissioners Friday that the pat-down never happened.

Christopher Manney, who is white, shot and killed 31-year-old Dontre Hamilton during a fight in a downtown park in April. Manney was responding to a call of a man sleeping illegally in the park. Chief Ed Flynn fired Manney in October, saying Manney improperly decided to frisk Hamilton. Prosecutors concluded in December the shooting was justified, sparking multiple protests.

Manney has asked the city’s Police and Fire Commission to reinstate him. A three-commissioner panel began a multi-day hearing on the request Thursday.

Manney’s attorney, Jonathan Cermele, began Friday’s portion of the hearing by questioning Sgt. Christopher Schroeder, an internal affairs officer. Schroeder told him that Manney said during an interview he intended to pat Hamilton down but only got as far as placing his hand on his chest to calm him before the fight began.

Cermele asserted the pat-down never began. Schroeder said he believed that placing a hand on a suspect’s chest amounts to starting the pat-down.

Cermele also asked Schroeder why he didn’t include a training officer’s opinion that Manney’s approach to Hamilton was valid in a September report. Schroeder responded that he chose not to include the opinion based on conferences with supervisors. He didn’t remember who specifically told him to leave the opinion out of the report, however.

Cermele challenged Schroeder, asking him if he thought he could have been more thorough and impartial if he had included the training officer’s opinion. The sergeant responded that he could have been more thorough but the report would have been 500 pages.

The hearing is expected to stretch into Sunday and potentially into Monday.

West De Pere played Mount Horeb in a Division 2 boys state basketball semifinal Friday at the Kohl Center.

GREEN BAY – From sword fighting to video games, the KI Convention Center in Green Bay has become a gathering spot for game lovers this weekend.

The creators of Kitsune Kon call the event the largest animation convention in Northeast Wisconsin.

If you’re looking for a playful fight, the boffer room might be a great place to start.

The padded weapons, made mostly out of foam and plastic, give people a chance to show off their battle skills.

“There’s a bunch of rules so people don’t get hurt or anything and we fight each other and we play games. We have team battles like capture the flag and we just, kind of, reenact like Lord of the Rings,” Shawn Moore, who watched over the boffer room.

While the boffer room tends to draw in larger crowds, video and computer games are also a huge hit at Kitsune Kon.

“I do a lot of shooting games and strategy games. I kind of play everything,” said Zak Kasper.

Kasper says sometimes it’s less about the game and more about chatting with friends.

“If you’re alone and you’re playing a single player game, I find I get bored but if it’s like us playing together, I can talk to them and hang out,” said Kasper.

This year Kitsune Kon expects 2,500 people to pass through the convention center. But it wasn’t always a big event.

“It was actually a group of friends at a Japanese Club at the technical college back in Appleton,” said Chris DuValle, convention director.

Fast forward a few years and you’ll find the registration line filled with people waiting to make their way inside.

It’s Chris Sams’ first time at the convention but he’s been a fan of Japanese Animation for more than two decades.

“I watch different animes as much as I can. I really follow, this one’s called Naruto. It’s a show about ninjas and ninjutsu,” said Chris Sams.

Whether it’s dressing up as your favorite character or playing an old board game, Kitsune Kon gives people of all ages a place to have fun.

“Since we’ve been enjoying the scene in the conventions, we want everyone to feel the joy that we’ve been experiencing thought these years,” DuValle said.

Kitsune Kon continues through the weekend. Click here for more information.

GREEN BAY – The director of Green Bay’s Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary was honored Friday for his efforts making young children more aware of water and the need for water conservation.

The award for Mike Reed came from NEW Water, which is the sewerage district, and the Water Utility as part of their celebration of World Water Day, started by the United Nations 22 years ago.

Reed said community involvement plays a major role in the success of the program, “I’m very humbled by receiving this award. This has been such a community effort to bring this program together.”

This is the second year Reed has had the learning center at the Sanctuary.

The program gives kindergartners a way to explore and discover nature.

 

 

Xavier played East Troy in a Division 3 boys basketball state semifinal on Friday at the Kohl Center.

GREEN BAY – A local deserving family will be getting a new place to call home.

The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay is joining hands with the Greater Green Bay Habitat for Humanity as they accept a $60,000 gift to build a new home.

The Gomez/Castro family learned last week that they had been selected to be the future owners of the home.

The name of the new house will be “The Pope Francis Home”.

Vern Peterson, Greater Green Bay Habitat for Humanity President says, “We agreed to honor Pope Francis for his commitment to social justice, provide unity to both Catholics and non-Catholics alike to work towards a very common goal and further Habitat’s mission to build homes.”

The project will be completed in September.

This will be the 85th home built by the organization.

GREEN BAY – So, it could be said, Friday was a warm winter day.

Temperatures soared into the 50s, but the day started a bit cooler.

With temperatures in the 30s Friday morning, anglers Paul Cote and Craig Hansen bundled up at the Fox Point boat launch in De Pere.

Paul Cote and Craig Hansen bundled up at the Fox Point boat launch in De Pere March 20, 2015. (WLUK/Eric Peterson)

“Fishing for walleyes, freezing too, mainly,” said Paul Cote, Appleton.

“Actually, a really nice day for the first day of spring. I’ve been ice fishing all winter, but I’m ready for some open water,” said Craig Hansen, Kaukauna.

Dozens of fishermen took to the waters of the Fox River, but on the path nearby, hikers and bikers hit the trail.

“It’s just another chilly day in March,” said Frank Zierhart, Howard.

Zierhart is 83 years old.

“Just enjoying myself, getting outdoors, getting my exercise,” he said.

Just up the road in Allouez, Karen Lavigne is hard at work.

“It’s very refreshing to be outside and raking with a nice cool breeze,” said Karen Lavigne, Allouez.

“I’m very excited for our flowers to start popping. So that’s really why I’m motivated to get raking, so the flowers can pop up,” she said.

And at Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary in Green Bay, parts of the lagoon were still frozen, but Barbara Boenski and her son found room to feed the geese.

Barbara Boenski rakes leaves at her Green Bay home March 20, 2015. (WLUK/Eric Peterson)

“This is his favorite thing to do. And we obviously can’t do it in the winter, so we’re down here enjoying the nice day,” said Barbara Boenski, Green Bay.

From robins, to red-winged blackbirds, signs of season can be seen.

“The buds are swollen on the shrubs and trees, so that’s a big indicator that things are starting to move inside the tree, and plant life is ready to emerge,” said Jody Sperduto, Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary Naturalist.

Sperduto says plants could show some green this weekend, but she likes the cold.

“Winter’s one of my favorite seasons, so I kind of miss the snow already,” said Sperduto.

But others say they’re glad spring is finally here.

“Oh yeah, I’ve been waiting a long time for this day,” said Cote.

The forecast calls for a cool down this weekend, as temperatures return the normal range, which is about 40 degrees.

GREEN BAY – A new push is underway to examine the potential health effects of a long-time part of the downtown Green Bay landscape, the city’s coal piles.

The push to reignite the conversation is being prompted by Erik Hoyer, a Brown County supervisor.

Patrick Marciniak lives across the river from downtown Green Bay’s coal piles. He moved in ten years ago, thinking the piles were going to be moved. He now pressure washes his home twice a year to remove built up coal dust.

“They’re a nuisance,” Marciniak said of the piles. “The outside of the house you can’t keep clean. The inside of the house, the dust builds up like you wouldn’t believe.”

The buildup has Hoyer wondering what the health impact is.

“The other aspect of the communication was to see what kinds of solutions we could purpose to integrate the impact of that dust,” said Hoyer.

Jim Schmitt has been working on solutions since he became mayor in 2003.

“Ultimately we have to get the coal piles relocated so we can develop the riverfront,” said Schmitt in 2003.

Now running for a fourth term, Schmitt says he still looks at the issue at least once a year.

“It’s an eyesore, but in terms of safety issue, we’ve never gotten any complaints that it’s exceeded any standards,” said Schmitt.

A 2004 study showed it would cost $29 million to move the coal piles. That study did not address potential health impacts.

The coal piles belong to C Reiss Coal of Koch Industries. A company spokesperson told us it is not considering a move. Within the past few years, the company spent $300,000 to upgrade its dust suppression equipment.

“We work very hard to be a good neighbor and we always want to be a good neighbor and we’re committed to making sure our product is handled in compliance with all rules and regulations,” said Jake Reint, a spokesperson for C. Reiss Coal Co.

If the coal piles aren’t moving, Marciniak says he is.

“If they want to do something with it, I think it’s time,” said Marciniak.

Supervisor Hoyer put in a request to the county board to provide any documentation it has about potential health risks of the coal piles.

MADISON (AP) – Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel is asking the state Supreme Court to take a case related to how much influence Gov. Scott Walker can have in the state’s education department.

Schimel wants the Supreme Court to review an appeals court ruling from last month that found a Republican-written law giving the governor the power to block new education rules is unconstitutional.

The appeals court ruled that the law essentially gives the governor veto authority over anything the elected state schools superintendent proposes, interfering with the superintendent’s constitutional powers to supervise public education.

The state Supreme Court is controlled by a majority of conservative-leaning justices. It is not obligated to take the case just because Schimel, a Republican, asked for a review.

PORT GIBSON, Miss. (AP) – A black man found hanging from a tree in Mississippi was Otis Byrd, a convicted killer whose family reported him missing more than two weeks ago, the FBI said Friday.

Thirty federal agents are on the scene, interviewing Byrd’s friends and family, and searching through his home and a storage space as they try to determine whether it was homicide or suicide, FBI special agent Don Alway said.

Byrd lived about 200 yards from the tree, which was in woods down a dirt road behind his house.

“Everybody wants answers and wants them quickly,” Alway said, but he declined to reveal any evidence discovered so far. He said the government is bringing the resources “we need to come to a conclusion, wherever that takes us.”

Claiborne County Sheriff Marvin Lucas Sr. told The Associated Press earlier Friday that Byrd did not appear to have stepped off of anything before he died.

“Life matters,” Lucas told the crowd outside the county courthouse. “I commit to you, as the sheriff Claiborne County, that I will not allow the shadows of the past to cast a shadow on the future.”

Byrd was found Thursday hanging by a bed sheet from a tree limb about 12 feet high, and his feet were dangling about two feet off the ground. His hands were not bound, he said.

The results of an autopsy by the Mississippi Crime Lab to determine whether the death was homicide or suicide could take days, Lucas said.

The hanging is being investigated by the FBI, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the United States Attorney’s office as well as the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.

The feds are there to determine if it’s a potential hate crime or other violation of federal law, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Friday.

“We simply don’t know enough facts,” Holder told MSNBC.

Lucas knew Byrd, who had to check in with the sheriff’s department as a condition of his parole in 2006 after serving 26 years in prison for the murder of a woman during a robbery in 1980.

Vicksburg Police Chief Walter Armstrong said Friday that after local authorities asked his department to check on a report that Byrd had been at a casino, video surveillance was recovered showing Byrd at the Riverwalk Casino on March 2.

“We didn’t see anything of significance on the tape. He was just walking around the casino. We did not see him after that,” Armstrong said.

The body was found by state wildlife officers and had “obvious signs” of decomposition, suggesting that it had been hanging in the woods for some time, said Jim Walker, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Trembling and with their tails between their legs, the dozens of dogs rescued from a South Korean meat farm were in rough shape both physical and mentally when they arrived in Northern California this week to start new lives.

In this image released on Thursday, March 19, 2015, 57 dogs rescued by Humane Society International and Change for Animals Foundation from a dog meat farm in Hongseong, South Korea, arrive in San Francisco.(Sammy Dallal/AP Images for Humane Society International)

Fifty-seven dogs and puppies were rescued from a dog meat farm by Humane Society International and Change for Animals Foundation in South Korea. The dogs range from beagles, poodles, and Korean Jindos to large Tosas who have spent their entire lives in small, filthy, crowded cages exposed on the farm, waiting to be killed – often electrocuted – for their meat that is often made into stew or used in dietary supplements overseas.

South Korea – the only known Asian country to have a farming industry that raises dogs solely for meat – is now the focus of an international effort by animal-rights groups to end the business.

“They’ve been starved of love their whole lives, living in fear and deprivation. As soon as we opened their cage doors and they realized we weren’t going to harm them, they wagged their tails and licked our faces. I felt very privileged to give these dogs the first ever cuddle and kiss of their lives,” Humane Society International Asian campaign manager Lola Webber said.

The farmer involved had bred dogs for meat for 20 years and was facing criticism from family members for his participation in the trade that sees about 2 million dogs consumed in South Korea annually, said Adam Parascandola, the group’s director of animal protection and crisis response.

“There’s been some surveys conducted among dog meat farmers that showed that given some incentive to go into another line of work they would chose to do so.,” Parascandola said.

In this image released on Thursday, March 19, 2015, in February 2015, Humane Society International visited a farm in Hongseong, South Korea, where dogs were being raised for the dog meat trade. In this image, two puppies are seen in their cage at the farm. (Manchul Kim/AP Images for Humane Society International)

In this case, the farmer with the 57 dogs was eager to close his farm and start a new life growing produce.

In a statement from Humane Society International, farmer Tae Hyung Lee says he believes “a lot of people want to get out of the dog-meat trade. “People don’t like dog meat like in the past,” he said.

In January, 23 dogs were rescued from a Seoul dog meat farmer, brought to Washington D.C., and adopted. That farmer also agreed to stop raising dogs for food and instead moved to grow blueberries. Another group of dogs could be rescued later this year, Parascandola said. His group will follow the farmers’ progress to make sure they are complying.

After arriving in San Francisco earlier this week, dogs were examined and treated for any medical conditions. They will be available for adoption, possibly as early next week, at Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ facilities in San Francisco, Oakland and Sacramento and the Marin Humane Society.

“Welcoming these dogs who’ve endured so much falls right in to our mission of saving animals, whenever called upon,” Marin Humane Society Chief Executive Officer Nancy McKenney said.

The dog lift from South Korean was a “win-win situation” because the attention on the rescue brings others, who may not normally visit a shelter, in as prospective adopters, Parascandola said.

Still, he acknowledged that the group has much more work to do.

“This is just the beginning. We have a long, hard campaign in front of us to end the dog-meat trade in South Korea.”

In this image released on Thursday, March 19, 2015, 57 dogs rescued by Humane Society International and Change for Animals Foundation from a dog meat farm in Hongseong, South Korea, arrive in San Francisco. HSI worked with the farmer to remove the dogs from miserable conditions and close the doors of his facility for good. (Sammy Dallal/AP Images for Humane Society International)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Former U.S. Rep. Bob Kastenmeier, an early and staunch opponent of the Vietnam War who served 32 years in Congress, has died. The Wisconsin Democrat was 91.

Kastenmeier’s wife, Dorothy, tells The Associated Press he died Friday at their home in Arlington, Virginia. She says his heart had been failing.

Kastenmeier, who represented the Madison area, served in the U.S. House from 1959 to 1991. He was upset by Republican challenger Scott Klug in 1990.

Kastenmeier was an early critic of the Vietnam War. He brought his House subcommittee to Madison to hold hearings on how the war was affecting his constituents.

Former U.S. Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, who served with Kastenmeier, tells the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Kastenmeier was “the most honest public official” he’d ever dealt with.

OSHKOSH – Police in Oshkosh are asking the public for help in locating missing two teens that ran away from home March 10.

16-year-old Marchelle Dixon of Oshkosh and 15-year-old Savannah Korn of the Town of Algoma are believed to be in Milwaukee together.

Dixon is described as black, 5’2”, 120 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. Her last known contact was her mom about a week ago.

Korn is described as white, 5’3”, 118 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. Police say she is believed to have her mother’s vehicle which is a 2013 blue Kia Sportage with the Wisconsin license plate, 152-DHS.

At this time, police do not believe the girls are in any danger.

If anyone has seen or knows where the two girls are, please call the Oshkosh Police Department at (920) 236-5700 or the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office at (920) 236-7300.

If you would like to remain anonymous, you can call the Winnebago County Wide Stoppers at (920) 231-8477 or text IGOTYA and you crime tip to 274637 or go to www.winnebagocrimestoppers.org and submit your tip via the web. You may be eligible for up to a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

 

It’s time to get off the ice.

That’s the word from the U.S. Coast Guard, which says it has responded to 69 emergency cases of people in distress on the ice so far this season – already one more than the five-year average. There are still six weeks to go in the season, and March and April are typically the busiest months of the year for ice resuces, the Coast Guard says.

“With the prediction of warmer temperatures, there is a concern that people will be at risk for falling through the ice or becoming stranded on an ice floe,” said Capt. Eric Johnson, chief of the Coast Guard 9th District Incident Management Branch, in a news release. “Ice enthusiasts in the Great Lakes are likely to see deteriorating ice conditions and are strongly recommended to take extra precautions with their safety.”

The thickness of ice can vary, with water currents, especially around narrow spots, bridges, inlets and outlets particularly potentially dangerous. Cracks, seams, pressure ridges, slushy areas and darker areas can signify thinner ice. Rocks, logs, vegetation and pilings in the water affect the strength of ice, and ice near the shore of a frozen lake can be weaker because of shifting, expansion and sunlight reflecting off the bottom.

N.E.W. Lutheran played Hillsboro in a Division 5 boys basketball state semifinal Thursday at the Kohl Center.

LOS ANGELES – A class action lawsuit has been filed against more than two dozen California wineries for arsenic.

A lawsuit claims 80 California wines have too much arsenic in them. The suit says some of the wines have more than double the acceptable standard which is 10 parts per billion.

Wine makers say the allegations are false and misleading. They say all the wines being sold in the U.S. marketplace are safe.

But attorney David Teselle says they are just cutting corners, “The vast majority of the wine industry in California does it right. This is about a few wineries that aren’t doing it right, that are cutting corners that are causing health risks to the consumers in California.”

For more information on this lawsuit and to see a wine list named in the lawsuit, click here.

MADISON — Sam Burkart take a bow.

With 6.1 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Burkart strolled to the free-throw line with “only” the season on the line.

Xavier trailed East Troy, 69-68, and Burkart had missed four of his previous nine free throws. He needed at least one, but the junior calmly sank two free throws to give the Hawks a 70-69 lead.

Then, the defense had to do its part, and it did, preventing the Trojans from getting off a last-second shot as the Hawks will play in their first WIAA boys basketball state championship game by winning a thrilling Division 3 state semifinal over East Troy on Friday at the Kohl Center.

“I just had to relax,” Burkart said. “Take it in and just concentrate and hit them down. I know I was struggling at the line early in the game.

“You have to put it out of your mind and just hit it and win the game.”

Xavier-Brown Deer Boxscore

Xavier’s rally didn’t seem likely as it trailed most of the game and was forced to foul in the final minutes in an attempt to catch up. Those fouls sent East Troy (18-8) to the free-throw line three times in the final 1:42 of the game for bonus situations and each time the Trojans missed, keeping the door open for Xavier.

Burkart scored Xavier’s last four points at the free-throw line, which allowed the Hawks (24-3) to turn the tables on the scoreboard.

In the fourth quarter, he’s the guy we need on the floor with the ball in his hands,” Xavier coach Matt Klarner said of Burkart. “When they blew that whistle with six seconds left, there was no way Sam was going to miss those free throws; just no way.”

“I know he’s going to pull it out,” senior Matt Kinderman said. “He’s the toughest guy I’ve ever played with. He’s done it time and time again in clutch moments.”

Despite Burkart’s free throws, Xavier had to play defense in order to meet Brown Deer in the state title game. East Troy didn’t call timeout on the final play and Xavier was ready.

“With the long court, I really thought if we could stop their initial surge … by the time they get it over half court it’s about three seconds and then they’re pushing at the rim,” Klarner said. “If we could stop that initial surge which we did; the first time I saw them back up their dribble and he had to stop and back up I thought we were in great shape.”

After the buzzer sounded, Xavier players celebrated on the court as the Hawks clinched their first-ever WIAA state tournament win in the program’s second trip to state. It was a tough road to the state finals as Xavier trailed by as many as 10 points in the game and seven after the third quarter.

Furthermore, Xavier led for just 47 seconds in the game, while East Troy led for 30:27.

“We had to relax and stick together,” said Kinderman, who had 20 points and 10 rebounds. “We had to keep a short memory and keep chipping away.”

“It was a real exciting basketball game,” Klarner said. “East Troy played a great basketball game today and I just give credit to our guys for not giving up.”

Xavier will now look to accomplish something its girls team fell short of last week at the state tournament at the Resch Center. The Hawks’ girls team fell in the state title game to Whitewater, so now the boys will look to bring the school its first WIAA gold ball.

“I think it’s big for our community and school,” said Burkart, who had 14 points and six rebounds. “We have to play better because Brown Deer is an excellent team. Don’t make it a bigger game than it is. It’s just another game. Play together and we’ll be fine.”

Follow Doug Ritchay in Twitter @dougritchay

Win and Will Butler of Arcade Fire and economist/New York Times columnist Paul Krugman headlined a panel discussion at SXSW today on the “celebrity economy in music” and how artists in the future will make a living. Moderated by Grantland’s Rembert Browne, who ironically claimed that he “failed economics,” the panel also included Nielsen’s Tatiana Simonian and Berger Management’s Nicky Berger. “Having a panel about the celebrity economy in music at SXSW is very fitting,” as Browne pointed out, “because this is one of the places that brands and commercialism in music maybe get to an overwhelming point.”

Although current topics like the unique opportunities provided by the the internet, the rise of streaming, and the utility of data were all addressed, much of the discussion returned to some very familiar themes — concerns and debates about “selling out” are hardly new. When Simonian spoke about corporate sponsorship as a crucial source of revenue for emerging bands, arguing that it shouldn’t necessarily be viewed as “selling out,” Win was quick to set her straight: “It is selling out, though, just for the record.” Although the importance of brands over labels may be on the rise, he wryly stated that “artists have been getting screwed over at pretty much the same rate, but now slightly different people are screwing us over.”

Similarly, Krugman — who kept humbly repeating that “I don’t know why I’m here, exactly” but consistently spoke intelligently and articulately, almost as if he were a Nobel prize-winning economist — asserted that “Things have changed a lot less for the musicians, for the artists, than you might think.” Even in the peak of CD sales in the ’80s, “artists earned about 7 times as much from live performance…It’s always been really about the live performances as far as the artist is concerned. There is really no reason to think that’s going to change.”

But it’s not all same as it ever was. Where things might be changing, according to Krugman, is in what he calls the “1% phenomenon.” In a microcosmic approximation of Western society as a whole, “the share of revenue going to a few bands at the top,” the bands and artists that regularly fill arenas, “has massively increased.” Although it feels like there’s a “renaissance of small bands and small venues…they’re getting a smaller share of the pie.” And as Will Butler pointed out, “A lot of artists will make money from their parents. That’s a giant way that a lot of bands are around, is their parents pay for things. And it’s great. As the rich get richer, their kids can do whatever the hell they want.”

But perhaps the most important revelation of the afternoon was the knowledge that Will Butler both owns and (presumably regularly) wears a shirt that says “Will.” If only we could all be so comfortable with our own identities.

MADISON (AP) – Administrators at Sun Prairie High School are apologizing after students there created a March Madness bracket that rated female students.

In an email to parents Friday Lisa Heipp, the school principal, said officials took immediate action admonishing the activity and asking students to dispose of brackets. She says school officials have talked with upset students as well as those suspected of creating the bracket.

Heipp says officials will continue monitoring social media to determine which students were involved and teachers will also be on alert.

In the email, Heipp says parents should talk to students about leaving a digital footprint that may be available for future colleges and employers to see.

LONGMONT, Colo. (AP) – A Colorado woman accused of luring an expectant mother to a basement and cutting the baby from her belly might not face homicide charges in the child’s death because of the way criminal law in the U.S. has become entangled in abortion politics.

In a highly charged debate that has played out across the country, Colorado has twice rejected proposals to make the violent death of a fetus a homicide, refusing to join 38 other states and the federal government for fear such a law would be used to restrict abortions.

That could complicate things for prosecutors in the case against Dynel Lane, 34, arrested in the grisly attack at her home Wednesday on a nearly eight-months-pregnant Michelle Wilkins. Wilkins survived; her baby girl died.

“Under Colorado law, essentially no murder charges can be brought if the child did not live outside of the mother,” said Stan Garnett, district attorney of liberal Boulder County.

Keith Mason, the president of Personhood USA, an anti-abortion group that has been pushing for a fetal homicide law in Colorado, called the situation “literally absurd.”

Lane remains in jail for now on suspicion of attempted murder and other crimes.

Attorneys and activists said the key issue will be whether the baby was alive outside the mother and whether the act that led to the death occurred outside her body. Lane’s attorney, Kathryn Herold, asked that a defense expert be present during the autopsy on Friday.

“In this particular case, the cause of death is going to be essential,” Herold said.

Fetal homicide laws have typically been promoted by abortion foes and opposed by abortion rights supporters, who fear such measures could be a backdoor way to attack the right to terminate a pregnancy.

Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, rejected that notion, saying: “Some of them have been in existence for 30 years, and they haven’t had any impact on legal abortions.”

In New Hampshire last week, the Republican-controlled legislature passed bills that would make the state the 39th to classify the violent killing of an unborn child a homicide. The state’s Democratic governor, Maggie Hassan, a staunch abortion rights supporter who may run for the Senate in 2016, has refused to say whether she would sign them.

Colorado Democrats rejected a GOP fetal-homicide bill in 2013. And voters defeated a similar ballot measure, 65 percent to 35 percent, last fall.

“The issue we were wrestling with is how you can hold offenders accountable and have some semblance of justice and not interfere with a woman’s reproductive rights,” said Democratic state Rep. Mike Foote, who is also a prosecutor.

Foote helped push through a law allowing extra felony charges against anyone who commits a crime that causes the death of a fetus. The law can add up to 16 years to a prison sentence; the top penalty for homicide in Colorado is the death penalty or life in prison.

Wilkins, 26, went to Lane’s home in response to a Craigslist ad offering baby clothes. Lane had been telling her family recently that she was pregnant, according to court records.

Her husband told investigators that when he came home early from work to meet her for a prenatal appointment, he found her covered in blood and a baby gasping for breath in a bathtub.

Lane told her husband she had a miscarriage, and he took her and the baby to a hospital, where the child was pronounced dead, authorities said.

Wilkins managed to call 911 about 2 1/2 hours after she entered the Lane home, and police arrived after the couple had left. Investigators found her on a bed in a pool of blood.

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Jennifer Farrar of the Associated Press’ News Research Center in New York and Kathleen Ronayne in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.