Marissa Alexander is serving 20 years in prison after her “stand your ground” defense failed. In May of 2012 Alexander was sentenced to 20 years in prison on three counts of aggravated assault — or, as most accounts read, for firing a “warning shot” to protect herself from her abusive husband. That’s right. A warning shot, it did not hit him or anyone else, yet she is rotting in prison, while George Zimmerman who shot and killed Trayvon Martin enjoys his freedom. What’s wrong with this picture?
The “he said, she said” case has come under retroactive scrutiny in the wake of the Zimmerman trial, and many are comparing the two: Both are said to be failures of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, both miscarriages of justice against the black community, both egregious cases of overcharging by fire-breathing prosecutor Angela Corey.
There are other important differences between this and the Zimmerman case.
1. The ‘victim’ in this case, was an abusive husband who is very much alive and unharmed!
2. The ‘victim’ had threatened to kill Marissa Alexander. Why did ‘Stand Your Ground’ work in a case where the victim is dead, and not in a case where a woman was threatened, and only fired a warning shot?