Prosecutors in Mexico announced that they are dropping a case against a woman who was sentenced to six years in prison for killing a man while he raped and attacked her.

According to the Associated Press, Roxana Ruiz, 23, was found guilty of homicide with “excessive use of legitimate defense” by a Mexican state court last week.

Ruiz used her shirt to strangle her attacker after he raped her. Prosecutors successfully argued that hitting the man in the head was sufficient defense.

She got convicted last week of killing her rapist in 2021 and received a sentence of more than six years in prison and more than $16,000 in restitution.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico announced over the weekend that he would try to have Ruiz pardoned in response to the widespread outrage.

Ruiz’s attorney, Angel Carrera, immediately intervened to claim that accepting a pardon would mean admitting Ruiz had committed a crime despite the fact that she is 100 percent innocent.

Ruiz belongs to a vulnerable group, the Mexico State Prosecutor’s Office stated in a statement after reviewing the case she was “exempt from guilt” and acted in self-defense, they determined.

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