Harrowing footage of a pregnant woman being tasered in jail five days before she lost her baby has emerged.

Martini Smith was jailed in September 2009 when she was 20 and pregnant.

She was taken into custody at the Franklin County Jail in Ohio on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge for stabbing her boyfriend in self-defense.

Corporal Matthew Stice tasered her because she could not remove her tongue stud, the last item of jewelry she was wearing. She had been stripped of her top and was wearing just her jeans.

Harrowing images show Smith falling against a concrete wall and sliding down it as Stice tasered her.

Five days later, Smith lost her baby. It is not clear if she was still in custody of if she had been released.

Martini Smith is pictured writhing on the ground after being tasered at the Franklin County jail in Columbus, Ohio, in September 2009. She lost her baby five days later

It is not clear how far into her pregnancy the woman was at the time. She was tasered by Corporal Matthew Stice because she could not take out her tongue stud

She did not directly state that the taser caused her to lose the child. It is not clear how far along she was in her pregnancy at the time.

She sued the police force afterwards and, in 2011, was awarded $27,500 in a settlement but it was not reported at the time that she had been pregnant.

In an interview last week however, Martini, now 26, told Reuters that the loss of her baby still haunted her.

'It stays with me like it was yesterday,' she said.

Smith had been taken into custody after for stabbing the boyfriend who she said was beating her. Once she had arrived at the county jail, she was ordered to remove all her jewelry and clothes.

When it came to taking out her tongue stud, she said she had trouble because her fingers were numb from having been handcuffed for six hours.

Now 26, Smith (pointing to where she was tasered in the chest) said she could remember the incident like it was 'yesterday'

Smith is one of nine people who sued the county over excessive use of tasers in the jail. Above, Wendy West is tasered in October 2008 at the same facility

Jordan Norris at the Cheatham County Jail in Ashland City, Tennessee, another facility where inmates have died because of taser use. He survived

Stice then tasered her, sending bolts of electricity into her chest. She fell back against the wall and slid to the ground.

Afterwards, she pleaded: 'Why did you Tase me? I wasn’t harming nobody. I can’t just take it out.'

In the video, she can be heard yelling: 'I'm about to have a seizure.'

Her miscarriage happened five days later. The domestic violence charges against her were eventually dropped.

She spoke with Reuters as part of a wider investigation into excessive force of tasers across the country.

Other videos gathered show inmates sitting on benches in their cells handcuffed before being tasered. One man was deaf.

Their investigation uncovered 104 deaths in prisons since 2000 that were the result of taser use.

Corey Carter is stunned by officers at the McCurtain County Jail in Idabel, Oklahoma, on February 12, 2015

Gary Kane is atsered by police at Franklin County Jail on October 10, 2009. None of the deputies in Franklin County faced charges. Instead, the county paid out lawsuit settlements in 2011

Of the 104 inmates who died, just two were armed.

A third were in handcuffs or other restraints when stunned. In more than two-thirds of the 70 cases in which Reuters was able to gather full details, the inmate already was immobilized when shocked – pinned to the ground or held by officers.

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer said the videos were proof of 'grave abuse'

The cases reflect a fundamental challenge of using Tasers in correctional settings: The weapons, designed to control violent or threatening suspects on the street, have fewer legitimate uses behind bars, where prisoners typically are confined in a cell, often restrained and almost never armed.

While Tasers can be an effective way to stop an assault on a guard or another inmate, veterans of the corrections system say the weapons too frequently are used on people who pose no imminent physical threat.

Smith's case, along with dozens of others, prompted the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, to call for an investigation into police use of tasers across the country this week.

Nils Melzer said videos like the one of Smith's demonstrate 'clearly gratuitous infliction of severe pain and suffering.'

He was concerned about incidents in four jails; Franklin County, Ohio; Cheatham County, Tennessee; Franklin County, Arkansas; and McCurtain County, Oklahoma.

No deputies from Franklin County have been charged despite the city paying out in lawsuit settlements in 2011.

Smith's was just one of nine that were filed against it. Melzer said the videos were proof of 'grave abuse'.