Marissa Alexander Gets Out on Bond Awaiting New Trial

Yahoo News

A Florida woman who claimed to be a victim of abuse, yet was sentenced to 20 years behind bars for allegedly firing a warning shot during a dispute with her then husband, was released on bond just in time for Thanksgiving.

Marissa Alexander was released Wednesday night with bond set at $200,000 and must remain under house arrest as she awaits a new trial. It took just 12 minutes for a jury to convict Alexander, a mother of three, of aggravated assault in 2012. The conviction of Alexander, who is black, sparked outrage and cries of a racial double standard in light of the exoneration of George Zimmerman, for the death of Trayvon Martin.

Alexander unsuccessfully tried to invoke Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law as the same state's attorney office and prosecution team from Duval County who unsuccessfully worked to put Zimmerman behind bars told the court that she did not act in self-defense.

Alexander was granted a new trial in September after an appellate judge ruled that jury instructions handed down during her trial were wrong. The instructions from her original trial included one that said Alexander had to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" that she was acting in self-defense, and that self-defense only applied if the victim suffered an injury, which her husband had not.

Marissa Alexander's Bail Hearing Postponed Again - Where is the NRA Outrage?

Marissa Alexander, serving a 20 year mandatory sentence for firing gun at abusive husband, gets new trial but a Judge has postponed bail hearing until January 2014

All Voices

Isn’t it exceedingly odd that members of this powerful group most vocal in defending the rights of teen Trayvon Martin’s killer did not lift their voice to defend a woman who was abused by her husband and stood her ground without killing or hurting anyone?

That gun rights groups who put up defense money and offered more money for the acquitted Zimmerman to purchase himself a new gun, did not go to battle for an abused woman who was exercising her Second Amendment rights as well as her Stand Your Ground rights?

Why isn’t the NRA using Marissa Alexander in ads all across the country? Where is Wayne LaPierre’s slogan "It takes a good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy"? For in this case it did stop a bad guy and no one died.

In fact, one would think this case would be championed by all the avid protectors of the Second Amendment who love to take to television, radio, the Internet and every other horse-and-buggy show to fiercely defend every American’s right to bear arms, while attacking President Obama for being the Grim Reaper of all this country holds dear, assault rifles and all.

Where, oh where is the NRA?