"Stand your ground" law in Florida is applied differently according to defendant's race/ethnicity.

[MrFun]

That's my impression anyway. Unless some Apolyton lawyer can dig up more background information about this case and can explain the "rationale" for the ruling and sentencing.

Domestic Abuse Victim Convicted For Defending Herself: The Hypocrisy Of The ‘Stand Your Ground’ Law
May 14, 2012
By Ann Werner

If ever the Stand Your Ground law in Florida had a chance of being applied fairly, that has gone out the window in the case of Marissa Alexander, a 31-year-old mother of three who has been sentenced to 20 years for firing a warning shot at her abusive husband.

In the aftermath of the long-delayed arrest of Trayvon Martin’s killer, it is incomprehensible that Alexander, who neither killed nor injured anyone, has been convicted of aggravated assault with a firearm and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Her husband, Rico Gray, a man with a documented history of abuse including an assault on her while she was pregnant, threatened to kill her nine days after the birth of their daughter. This time, Marissa wasn’t going to put up with another beating. When threatened, she fired a warning shot into the ceiling to let Gray know that the abuse was over and he’d better think twice before coming after her again.

He then ran into the street and claimed that she had threatened to kill him and his boys. On his word alone, she was arrested.

State Attorney Angela Corey, the same prosecutor who is prosecuting the Trayvon Martin case, offered a three-year sentence plea bargain but Alexander refused on the grounds that she had done nothing wrong. Alexander tried to invoke Florida’s Stand Your Ground law but the judge refused.

Even though Gray recanted and even though Alexander’s 11-year-old daughter took the stand and made a plea on her mother’s behalf, the judge said that he had no choice but to sentence Alexander for at least 20 years.

This verdict poses serious questions about an already questionable law that is applied unevenly. Jacksonville Congresswoman Corrine Brown has stated that Alexander’s case is a product of “institutionalized racism” and that she had been unable to locate a Stand Your Ground case where a black person is the beneficiary of the law. Alexander is a black woman. Brown will be calling for a national study by the U.S. Department of Justice or other entity to determine whether there are racial inequalities in the application of the Stand Your Ground defense.

In the meantime, Marissa Alexander faces a long time in prison with little hope of getting out.

[Zevico]

Most importantly-- in fact everything in this article is irrelevant to this point-- what were the judge's reasons for refusing leave to rely on the defence? Nowhere are they explained, cited or linked to. It's one thing to explain why the judge erred; it's another to ignore his reasons entirely as this article does. Provide a link to his reasons and we can go from there I think.

[Felch]

I'm not expert, but my understanding is that Florida law still prohibits pointing a weapon at someone. Legally you're safer shooting someone than you are just threatening them with the gun.

[Dinner]

White juries don't like it when negros have guns. Just a fact.

[MrFun]

I'm not expert, but my understanding is that Florida law still prohibits pointing a weapon at someone.

The retarded neighborhood watcher who killed Troyvan Taylor shot and killed him without pointing a gun at him?

[Al B. Sure!]

The retarded neighborhood watcher who killed Troyvan Taylor shot and killed him without pointing a gun at him?

You mean the guy who's awaiting trial on murder two?


Stand your ground in Arizona helps Black shooters (see killer of Daniel Adkins)

[Zevico]

Any comment on this case is idle speculation based on an article that doesn't even address the judge's reasons or give the pretence of doing so. What's the point in it?

[Lorizael]

That's my impression anyway.

Based on two data points? Impressive.

[Felch]

The retarded neighborhood watcher who killed Troyvan Taylor shot and killed him without pointing a gun at him?

The issue is that your use of force has to be justified. If you're not in immediate, life-threatening danger, then it not justifiable to use a firearm. If you're shooting into the ceiling to chase somebody away, then your danger is not immediate or life-threatening. Guns are only supposed to be used to kill people, not to threaten them or to win arguments. Pointing a gun is a crime. You can get immunity from the crime of pointing, by killing someone and sticking to your story.

I'm surprised you weren't able to copy and paste from a source that has the judge's rationale. Hell, Gaytoday had a more complete version of the story.

Spoiler:

Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law is coming under more scrutiny, this time in a case involving a woman sentenced to 20 years in prison after firing a gun in the direction of her abusive husband.

Marissa Alexander was sentenced last week after a Florida judge rejected her defense citing the “Stand Your Ground” law, which allows people to use deadly force in a case where a person is attacked or believes his life or safety is in danger.

The controversial law, first enacted in Florida and now in effect in more than 20 other states, has come under growing criticism after the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in February.

Alexander, a 31-year-old mother of three, claimed in court that she fired a warning shot into the ceiling of a house after her husband threatened her and moved in her direction. The husband was not hit.

In issuing the ruling, the judge said Alexander could have escaped the situation instead of firing her gun.

Florida’s minimum-sentence guidelines require Alexander to serve 20 years in prison because a gun was fired in the incident.

A member of the U.S. House of Representatives, the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and an advocacy group opposed to minimum prison sentencing guidelines have all rallied behind Alexander, calling her sentence harsh.

Greg Newburn, Florida project director for Families Against Mandatory Minimums, said under the sentencing guidelines Alexander would not be granted early release or opportunities for parole.

“I operate under the assumption, for argument’s sake, that even if everything the state attorney alleges is true, the 20-year sentence is still obscene,” Newburn said.

“I don’t argue that the sentence is unjust because she is innocent, I argue that the sentence is unjust because it does not fit the circumstances.”

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Representative Corrine Brown of Florida, who attended the sentencing, issued a statement criticizing the prison term.

“If women who are victims of domestic violence try to protect themselves, the ‘Stand Your Ground’ law will not apply to them,” she said.

“Just minutes before the incident, Marissa’s husband told her ‘If I can’t have you, nobody is going to have you.’ Millions of abused women have heard those words.”

Alexander alleged that during the August 1, 2010, incident her husband choked her and refused to let her leave the house. She said she eventually escaped to the garage, then realized she left her car keys behind and returned, carrying a handgun.

The office of Florida State Attorney Angela Corey said evidence at the scene suggested the shot was fired in a more threatening direction and put at risk two children who were also in the home at the time.

Corey said she offered Alexander a plea deal for a three-year sentence, but she refused. “She turned it down through a trial where she took the stand and, based on our assertion of the facts and based on our presentation of the evidence, she was found guilty,” Corey said.

Relatives of Alexander say she plans to appeal and intends to take her case to Florida’s clemency board, which has broad powers to reduce sentences or even pardon convicted criminals.

Alexander had no prior criminal record and possessed a court-issued protective order against her husband at the time of the attack.

Alexander’s husband, Rico Gray, was arrested in 2006 and 2009 on charges of domestic battery.

Martin was shot to death by a neighborhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman, in an Orlando suburb and authorities initially declined to arrest the shooter because of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law.

The decision prompted nationwide protests and Zimmerman, who is white and Hispanic, was later charged with second-degree murder by Corey and arrested.

It's clear that there were other considerations, such as her opportunity to flee the situation, and the presence of two small children, that made wildly firing into the ceiling unacceptable. I'm hoping the sentence will be reduced by the clemency board, since 20 years is a damn long time. If it were up to me, Americans would be free to brandish and discharge firearms at will, only to be punished if innocents were harmed. But sadly, I don't make the rules to this country.

[MrFun]

No one knows whether or not she had a realistic chance of fleeing safely, along with her two children in tow.

[The Mad Monk]

This is all kinds of ****ed up.

[Al B. Sure!]

Jury of her peers, though. That's the problem. Are we saying the jury determination was wrong?

[Felch]

No one knows whether or not she had a realistic chance of fleeing safely, along with her two children in tow.

Unless the two children were in danger, that's irrelevant. They were more imperiled by their mother's reckless shooting than by their father's misogyny. Evidently she did have an opportunity to escape, but chose to return.

She said she eventually escaped to the garage, then realized she left her car keys behind and returned, carrying a handgun.

That's where she screwed up. Once you flee, you're no longer "standing your ground." Should people be allowed to run away from an ass kicking, and then come back with a gun and shoot their attacker? Maybe. But Florida law apparently says no.

[Uncle Sparky]

American's have too many guns.

[regexcellent]

There's no such thing, Sparky.