A Jacksonville woman was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Friday for firing a warning shot at an abusive husband, who she said had repeatedly threatened her.
31-year-old Marissa Alexander was convicted of three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for firing into a wall not far from her husband and two young children at a home in Jacksonville in 2010.
Alexander argued unsuccessfully that she had no intention of hurting anyone when she fired the warning shot and was standing her ground against an abusive husband who had punched and choked her on several prior occasions.
But a jury disagreed and it took them twelves minutes to convict the mother of three.
Earlier, Alexander had rejected a plea deal offered by the State Attorney’s Office which would have given her three years in prison.
A motion filed last week seeking dismal of the case, was also rejected by the judge, the Huffington Post reported.
Alexander’s case and its outcomes heightens the controversy surrounding the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teen, killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman, who claimed self-defense. Zimmerman said he was attacked by the teen and feared for his life.
Zimmerman was not initially charged by Sanford police, who believed he was standing his ground when he shot and killed Martin. But the neighborhood watch volunteer was subsequently arrested and charged with second degree murder by Angela Corey, the state attorney who oversaw the case against Alexander.
Corey said that justice was done in Alexander’s case, the Huffington Post reported. She believes that Alexander was angry and reckless, not fearful when she discharged the bullet.
“The fact that nobody got hurt has to be balanced with the fact that someone could have gotten hurt,” Corey said. “The kids being right next to him changed everything.”
Corey will argue too, that Zimmerman was not standing his ground when he shot and killed Martin, the unarmed teen. Then, it will be up to a jury to decide on the case, based on a controversial law which is currently under review.
Read More Here.
[…] attorney had argued unsuccessfully before a judge and jury, she was standing her ground and had no intention of hurting anyone when she fired a warning shot […]
Well, I at first felt like what the heck?? Why did they give her so much time? However, this article is with holding certain facts like, did this woman have a criminal record besides being a victim of her husbands physical abuse? Was she under the influence of any type of controlled substance or alcohol? I believe truly that Corey made her decision solely on the fact that the children were present when this occured and she may have wanted to teach this woman a lesson of what trauma she inflicted on her own children. But the law is the law. Use a gun and you are done. Here in California is 10-20 to life in prison. You pull a gun and your done. You fire a gun with or without killing someone its automatic 20 yrs prison with chance of parole. You hurt someone or kill them its 20 to life without parole. I believe that is the message Corey is sending out to the people of the United States of America. The law is the law and it needs to be enforced! I feel Zimmerman over reacted! If he was a Crim major then he should have controlled himself to the extent that he wasn’t fighting a boy with equal power. Gun vs Gun. I feel sorry for both of them because one young boys life was taken while Zimmerman may have to spend the rest of his life behind bars as well for his actions. Zimmerman needs to be held accountable for his actions regardless for as who is at fault! A life was taken and that is the SIGNIFICANCE of it all. Perhaps because it was black boy who was killed they are treating this case differently because the black nation probably feels like he was shot because he was black and out of control. Who really knows. But which ever the race… No boy or person deserves to be killed. Zimmerman with proper training should have only wounded his attacker to the point so that he could get help not kill the attacker! The deceased whether at fault or not has rights too even though the deceased is no longer here. Thats all I want to say about this. Thanks. Fresno, California