wow. i've been following this. i'm shocked.

(CNN) -- Saying he had no discretion under state law, a judge sentenced a Jacksonville, Florida, woman to 20 years in prison Friday for firing a warning shot in an effort to scare off her abusive husband.

Marissa Alexander unsuccessfully tried to use Florida's controversial "stand your ground" law to derail the prosecution, but a jury in March convicted her of aggravated assault after just 12 minutes of deliberation.

The case, which was prosecuted by the same state attorney who is handling the Trayvon Martin case, has gained the attention of civil rights leaders who say the African-American woman was persecuted because of her race.

After the sentencing, Rep. Corrine Brown confronted State Attorney Angela Corey in the hallway, accusing her of being overzealous, according to video from CNN affiliate WJXT.

"There is no justification for 20 years," Brown told Corey during an exchange frequently interrupted by onlookers. "All the community was asking for was mercy and justice," she said.

Corey said she had offered Alexander a plea bargain that would have resulted in a three-year prison sentence, but Alexander chose to take the case to a jury trial, where a conviction would carry a mandatory sentence under a Florida law known as "10-20-life."

'Stand your ground' plea rejected
The law mandates increased penalties for some felonies, including aggravated assault, in which a gun is carried or used.

Corey said the case deserved to be prosecuted because Alexander fired in the direction of a room where two children were standing.

Alexander said she was attempting to flee her husband, Rico Gray, on August 1, 2010, when she picked up a handgun and fired a shot into a wall.

She said her husband had read cell phone text messages that she had written to her ex-husband, got angry and tried to strangle her.

She said she escaped and ran to the garage, intending to drive away. But, she said, she forgot her keys, so she picked up her gun and went back into the house. She said her husband threatened to kill her, so she fired one shot.

"I believe when he threatened to kill me, that's what he was absolutely going to do," she said. "That's what he intended to do. Had I not discharged my weapon at that point, I would not be here."

Alexander's attorneys tried to use the state law that allows people to use potentially deadly force anywhere they feel reasonably threatened with serious harm or death.

But a previous judge in the case rejected the request, saying Alexander's decision to go back into the house was not consistent with someone in fear for her safety, according to the Florida Times Union newspaper.

A jury convicted Alexander in March and Judge James Daniel denied her request for a new trial in April.

Daniel handed down the sentence Friday after an emotional sentencing hearing during which Alexander's parents, 11-year-old daughter and pastor spoke on her behalf.

Several people had to be escorted from the courtroom after breaking out singing and chanting about a perceived lack of justice in the case, but Daniel made a point to say that he had no choice under state law.

"Under the state's 10-20-life law, a conviction for aggravated assault where a firearm has been discharged carries a minimum and maximum sentence of 20 years without regarding to any extenuating or mitigating circumstances that may be present, such as those in this case," Daniel said.

Brown, the Jacksonville congresswoman, told reporters after the sentencing that the case was a product of "institutional racism."

"She was overcharged by the prosecutor. Period," Brown said. "She never should have been charged."

Brown has been more complimentary about Corey's work in the Trayvon Martin case, where her office filed second degree murder charges against neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in the February 26 death of the unarmed African-American teen-ager.

That case provoked nationwide protests demanding Zimmerman's arrest after an initial police investigation released him under the "stand your ground" law.



http://www.news4jax.com/news/20-year-sen...index.html

video news at sentencing

http://www.news4jax.com/news/20-year-sen...index.html

Dumb Shit.
You can't go back a year or more and claim sefl defence if you were gone and went back in the house, not to mention shooting through a wall where there were kids

yes. she's dumb.

i was still a Fla. deputy when it passed, i knew damn well it would be either blood in the streets or stupid decisions. i don't think she should get 20.

10-20-life. well they were warned.

Ignorance is no excuse as the old saw goes. She did a stupid cook kind of thing and then tried to weasel out of responsibility for it

it was everywhere.

So would this come into play for Zimmerman? Or not because there was not "crime"..as it is not yet against the law to be a dumb fuck,

(05-11-2012, 11:18 PM)QueenBee Wrote: So would this come into play for Zimmerman? Or not because there was not "crime"..as it is not yet against the law to be a dumb fuck,

No, it wouldn't. She purported that her husband was being abusive (ok so far) so she was going to leave(ok) no keys (oops) Picks up a gun (problem starts here) goes back in the house (no longer apparently in fear of her life or bodily harm) and shoots the wall. When she squeezed the triger she was doomed. She had already run away, and Chose to go in and re-engauge.

Z had no oportunity to run once the engaugement started, it was all one act.

I don't have a problem with the stand your ground law in principal but it seems clear to me that it's too open to interpretation and not well defined.

Valrico, FL (CNN/WFLA/WTFS/WTSP) - Outrage over last month's shooting death of an unarmed teen in Florida has put a new focus on the state's "Stand Your Ground" law. The widow of a man shot dead in front of his daughter, says it is a free pass for murder.

When David James, an Iraq War veteran, escaped combat in the Middle East unscathed, his wife Kanina breathed a sigh of relief.

"I would worry about him but I thought he'd be safe here," she said.

Kanina was wrong; and now wants to know why Trevor Dooley, a 71-year-old retired bus driver, shot her husband in broad daylight, right in front of their eight-year-old daughter. Dooley claims it was self defense. Kanina James calls it murder.

"What person brings a gun to a park when there's children? I mean, he killed my husband. He could've just talked to him," James said.

Whether or not Trevor Dooley fired in self-defense is at the heart of this case. Also central to the story is Dooley's defense-Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law-which allows a person to stand their ground and use deadly force if they fear someone could seriously harm them.

Here's what witnesses said happened on that September Sunday in 2010. Forty-one-year-old David James was playing basketball with his daughter when witnesses said Dooley, who lived right across the street, started yelling at a teenager who was skateboarding, to get off the court. That's when witnesses said James intervened.

James yelled back to Dooley, asking him to show where any sign said no skateboarding. Dooley then crossed the street to the park to confront James.

A tennis player at the park, Michael Whitt, testified things turned ugly when Dooley reached for his waistband. Whitt said James then lunged at Dooley. The two men struggled on the ground before James was shot once through the heart. On the 911 call, Whitt is heard trying to help.

More...

http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/311679/...for-murder

WTH? This should have been fisticuffs in the park...not a shooting incident.

She didn't pull a gun during a crime.

She violated a gun law at worst. The judge and the states attorney should lose their jobs.

Un-fucking-believable.

Said it before. Say it again.

The law is overly broad and needs serious thought and refinement.

Soliciting opinions: what if she had fired the round through the floor instead of the wall and had endangered no one?

i have always been pro-pros all the way. but i think Corey is nuts. here and overcharging Z.

(05-12-2012, 12:16 AM)Disciple Wrote: Un-fucking-believable.

Said it before. Say it again.

The law is overly broad and needs serious thought and refinement.

Soliciting opinions: what if she had fired the round through the floor instead of the wall and had endangered no one?

I get the impression the bullet must have whizzed by one of the kids' ears or something. I don't believe this is relevant if it didn't hit anyone. It obviously wasn't attempted murder even if it hit them. There was no crime after the gun was fired, during the firing ot before. The only crime would be some local ordinance about discharging a gun and it took place after she pulled the trigger and was not concurrent with an independent crime.

I see no justification whatsoever for leveling this charge on her. What kind of lawyer did she have? How does the court system always figure out a way to let the bad guys go and give normal people 20 years? The failure of the educational system will manifest more and more in other fields like justice as time goes by. We've already lost our manufacturing base due to a failed educational system and it's going to get far far worse.

Clad: There was no crime after the gun was fired, during the firing or before.


actually, discharging a weapon within 500' of a dwelling. but not 20 years!! florida is nuts. kill your kid and get 15 months suspended.

I suppose this prosecutor will charge someone hunting without a license with this 20 year thing and life if they actually shoot a little bunny rabbit.

At least this is what the law was intended to do though; strenghten the penalrties for using a gun is perpetration of a crime.

This is another miscarriage of justice pure and simple. These get more common with each passing day. They let murdering rapists go and lock up the innocent and those who expect justice from our criminal justice system.

To be honest no law such as the stand your ground law is needed even though I agree with it being there, no one is required to not try to stop themselves from being killed or seriously injured before they take out the asshole that is trying to kill or injure them.

tried by 12 or carried by 6 the choice seems easy to me.

it used to be called justifiable homicide.
i'm surprised it took this long to test the law.
the Z case will do that, and it will be repealed.
maybe this woman will be freed. i hope so.
but she was stupid to go back!!

It's all about the premeditation. The gun law is crystal clear.

She should have run to the neighbors and called 911.

(05-12-2012, 11:21 AM)ramseycat Wrote: She should have run to the neighbors and called 911.

She should have shot the dude, you don't seem to understand the reason she was charged as she was.

She recklessly endangered others and discharged a weapon in an effort to scare some one, that action is called assault and the gun made it aggravated assault.