Marissa
Alexander of Jacksonville, Fla., received a 20-years prison sentence,
Friday, May 11, 2012, for firing warning shots against her allegedly
abusive husband. The judge rejected a defense under Florida's "Stand
Your Ground" law. / WETV
CBS News
Updated on July 15, 2013 to reflect more of the testimony and aftermath of the case.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A Florida woman who fired warning shots against her allegedly abusive husband has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Marissa Alexander of Jacksonville had said the state's "Stand Your Ground" law should apply to her because she was defending herself against her allegedly abusive husband when she fired warning shots inside her home in August 2010. She told police it was to escape a brutal beating by her husband, against whom she had already taken out a protective order.
Circuit Court Judge James Daniel handed down the sentence Friday.
Under Florida's mandatory minimum sentencing requirements Alexander couldn't receive a lesser sentence, even though she has never been in trouble with the law before. Judge Daniel said the law did not allow for extenuating or mitigating circumstances to reduce the sentence below the 20-year minimum.
"I really was crying in there," Marissa Alexander's 11-year-old daughter told WETV. "I didn't want to cry in court, but I just really feel hurt. I don't think this should have been happening."
Alexander was convicted of attempted murder after she rejected a plea deal for a three-year prison sentence. She said she did not believe she did anything wrong.
She was recently denied a new trial after appealing to the judge to reconsider her case based on Florida's controversial "Stand Your Ground" law. The law states that the victim of a crime does not have to attempt to run for safety and can immediately retaliate in self-defense.
Alexander's attorney said she was clearly defending herself and should not have to spend the next two decades behind bars.
Alexander's case has drawn support from domestic abuse advocates - and comparison to the case of neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who has claimed self-defense in his fatal shooting of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin.
So, are you saying her actions were justified and Zimmerman's were too? Or that she should be in jail for this, and Zimmerman should be too? Or that she should be free and Zimmerman should be in jail?
ReplyDeleteZimmerman should have been convicted of manslaughter. Ms. Alexander should have never been charged with anything serious.
DeleteAnd you call us racists, Mikeb.
DeleteSurly you would disarm her for the rest of her life, and especially given that she has an abusive ex, I would call that "serious".
Delete*blink blink*
DeleteWTF?
She fired two warning shots in a house with no idea where the bullets would go or who they could have injured.
When we had a case where a guy did that to stop a crowd from beating up his girlfriend, you wanted him to go to jail because the girlfriend shouldn't have asked the crowd to keep it down. (Course the couple in that case was white...seeing a pattern here...)
Now, all that being said, I'll agree that this is a miscarriage of justice--nobody was hurt, so the recklessness in this case could be dealt with with a small fine if that (perhapse assessed but then waived). Other than that, provided Alexander's story is true, it sounds like self defense to me.
Of course, this is another case brought by the DA who charged Zimmerman, and whose office made their case based on horribly flimsy evidence.
T., why is it that even when you agree with me you have so much contention and argument in your comment?
DeleteI agreed with your opinion on the one case, but I pointed out that in a similar case which had multiple witnesses to verify the need for the warning shots, you took the opposite position.
DeleteI'm wondering if there's a reason for your contradictory positions. Is it because the folks in the earlier incident were white? Is it because your opinion has changed? Is it because it's politically expedient to support Alexander for your narrative but was expedient to hold the other case up as an example of a "lawful gun owner behaving badly"?
The twenty years comes from mandatory sentencing, but given the circumstances, this verdict and sentence is an injustice.
ReplyDeleteIf she shot at her husband while her had her pinned down and he slammed her head against the ground she would have been aquitted. More likely it would have never seen a trial.
ReplyDeleteTry again, Mrs Alexander shows up at her baby's daddie house eats lunch shows baby daddie her cellphone with her newborn's photos on it while baby daddie is looking at the pics finds a photo of baby mommas old bofriend, amd asks "bitch is this kid mine?", pissed of she goes to her car and gets her gun.
ReplyDeletecomming back to her estranged hubby home she points a gun at him in front of his two sons from another momma and shoots at him missing his head.
She then flees the sceene, and when she is caught says she was not there....
After she posts bond she goes back and assaults him....
Her sentence sucks, had she killed him she could have goften away with time served.
But dummy could not claim SYG.