Supporters of a woman who was sentenced to 6 years for strangling her rapist with a T-shirt call for 'justice'

• A woman in Mexico was sentenced to six years after she strangled her rapist.
• Roxana Ruiz, 23, was also ordered to pay over $16,000 to the family of the man who raped her, AP reports.

A young woman in Mexico has been sentenced to six years in prison for killing the man who raped her.

The case has led to a public outcry, and her supporters gathered outside the court carrying protest signs and chanting "Justice!"

Roxana Ruiz's legal defense has called the sentencing "discriminatory," per AP. Her lawyer Ángel Carrera said, "It's sending the message to women that the law says you can defend yourself, but only to a point."

On Monday, a court ruled Ruiz, 23, was guilty of homicide with "excessive use of legitimate defense," although it concluded she had been raped in the assault in 2021.

It was also ruled that Ruiz, who has a son aged four, must pay over $16,000 to the family of the man who raped her, AP reports.

The night that changed Ruiz's life began when she met a man who she vaguely knew while out with a friend in Nezahualcoyotl – a municipality with an ongoing gender alert for femicides and another one for forced disappearances of women, AP reported. He offered to walk her home, which she agreed to.

When they arrived, the man asked if he could stay over as he was far from home. She said agreed if he slept on a mattress on the floor.

When she fell asleep, he hit her, tore her clothes off, and raped her. He said he was going to kill her, her lawyer said, per AP.

She fought back and, while he was distracted by one of her blows, she grabbed a T-shirt and strangled him with it, the court heard, according to reports.

"I put it on his neck we started struggling again. That was when we fell, and I didn't let go of the shirt because of the fear I had," she told Puerto Vallarta News in 2022.

In a panic, she then dragged his body out into the street, and passing police arrested her.

Although she told the police that she had been raped, she was refused a forensic exam, and an officer said that she probably wanted sex, Ruiz's lawyer said.

"I regret what I did, but if I hadn't done it, I would be dead today," Ruiz told AP in a 2022 interview.

Ruiz remains free pending an appeal.