State Sen. Gary Siplin (D-Orlando) spoke out Monday expressing his deep isappointment over the conviction and sentencing of Marissa Alexander, a Jacksonville woman sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot at her abusive husband.
“I am deeply disappointed to learn of Ms. Marissa Alexander’s conviction and sentencing,” Siplin said in a statement. “The curious case of Ms. Alexander illustrates the troubles and difficulties that exist under the “Stand Your Ground” law.
Alexander’s 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 at a home in Jacksonville in 2010.
Siplin said, it is people like Alexander that the stand your ground law is designed to protect, where one’s life is truly being threatened. On the other hand, many individuals in Florida ought not to be shielded from prosecution under the stand your ground self-defense priviledge, he said, making reference to the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin.
“The inconsistency of cases asserting justifiable homicide only further asserts the need for review (of the law),” Siplin said.
Siplin, who initially voted in favor of the legislation when it was first presented in the Florida Legislature and who currently sits on the Stand Your Ground Taskforce, established by Gov. Rick Scott to review the law, is urging Central Florida residents to attend the June 12, meeting in Sanford and make their voices heard.
Meanwhile, State Attorney Angela Cory, who oversaw the Alexander case, and who is also prosecuting George Zimmerman, Martin’s killer, told the Huffington Post that, justice was done. She believes that Alexander was angry and reckless, not fearful of her husband, when she discharged the bullet near her husband who had two kids next to him.
