dagblog - Comments for "Florida's stand-your-ground law put to test in Marissa Alexander conviction"

Like you, I don't know the

Verified Atheist — Mon, 21 May 2012 16:41:37 +0000

Like you, I don't know the truth. I was just trying to present both sides of the story. I'm more sympathetic to her PoV than the prosecutor's, but I do think it's important to know what the prosecutor's PoV was. I'm fairly certain they were her children, which any reasonable person would understand wanting to protect. There are reasons to question her testimony, such as her going back to visit this guy after the incident despite there being a court-ordered restraining order that she should not do so (as I understand it). That said, it's not an unusual practice for an abused spouse to return to her (or his) abuser.

I agree with you that there is little evidence to support attempted homicide of any flavor.

She was inside, she fired

PeraclesPlease — Sun, 20 May 2012 09:09:37 +0000

In reply to I think the point the

She was inside, she fired into the ceiling, not an outside wall.

She had her car in the garage, she couldn't get out of the garage because it was locked & her key wasn't working, so grabbed a gun and went back for her phone - at least she says.

Escaping in a car seems a much better idea than running on foot.

I don't know whose kids they were in the house - whether she was trying to rescue them as well - but overall, it sounds like a huge injustice when no one was hurt and she'd been repeatedly a victiim.

(expecting abused women to call the police on their mates and fathers of their children is questionable - there are lots of reasons why they can be internally conflicted)

Corey & the court ignored evidence about the garage door being locked, and that she was a trained shooter, and that she shot only 1 shot - she obviously could have shot more if she were trying to kill "them" as Corey states.

The crazy right in

trkingmomoe — Sun, 20 May 2012 06:30:18 +0000

In reply to Florida's stand-your-ground law put to test in Marissa Alexander conviction

The crazy right in Tallahassee has been pushing toward privatizing Florida prisons for quite awhile. So we now have series of laws on the books like this one to fill prisons and keep them full. The privatization of prisons failed again this year in Tallahassee. They make these laws with mandatory sentences because they don't want liberal judges to do their jobs and give sentences that matches the crime. The sentence she got was more because of politics then what she did.

I think the point the

Verified Atheist — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:54:53 +0000

In reply to So does entering the garage

I think the point the prosecutor was making was that instead of leaving the house via the back door, she chose to go into the garage to get the gun. I see several things wrong with that assertion: the woman's state of mind (ability to think rationally), whether she knew ahead of time she wouldn't be able to exit the garage, etc.

As for the 20 years, it's inarguably absurd.

So does entering the garage

Donal — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:51:19 +0000

In reply to Although I'm sympathetic to

So does entering the garage constitute leaving the home? Or were they separate structures? It disturbs me that she fired a weapon with children in the house, but twenty years seems absurd.

Although I'm sympathetic to

Verified Atheist — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:07:43 +0000

In reply to According to Florida law,

Although I'm sympathetic to her case, (as I understand it) she wasn't in her own home when she fired the shot. She had already left, and fired the shot into the exterior wall of house prior to re-entering to grab her son. I think one can argue for all types of extenuating circumstances, but "stand your ground" doesn't seem like one of them.

Note that I'm not defending the use of "stand your ground" with respect to Zimmerman, nor am I defending the prosecutor.

After writing that, I read what this particular article has to say, and here is the relevant excerpt:

At some point during the altercation, Alexander went into the garage. She claims she could not flee because the garage door was not working and she did not have the keys to her car. Alexander grabbed her handgun from inside the glove compartment and went back into the house. She fired a single shot at Gray, who was standing in the living room with his sons, ages nine and 13. The shot missed.

This article appears to capture some of the prosecution's position:

Second, as the judge pointed out in the ruling that denied stand your ground immunity, presumably Alexander could have fled the home through the back door instead of returning to the house and confronting Gray.

"Obviously, the jury believed the state's position, that she went into garage to get the gun and make a stand, and that's not going to be tolerated," Stone says.

…

And there are disputes about significant facts in the case, including whether Alexander could have escaped out the garage instead of getting her gun and returning to the house; Gray said he "knew she couldn't leave out the garage door because the garage door was locked" in his November 2010 deposition, but in her ruling against allowing Alexander "stand your ground" immunity, Judge Elizabeth Senterfitt wrote that "there was no evidence presented to support her claim."

So, I think I understand both sides of the story, but I still think other mitigating factors could have been brought into play. Of course, IANAL.

According to Florida law,

Donal — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:37:41 +0000

In reply to Florida's stand-your-ground law put to test in Marissa Alexander conviction

According to Florida law, this results in a mandatory minimum 10-year sentence for anyone convicted of pulling a gun during a crime, and a mandatory minimum of 20 years for anyone convicted of firing a gun in the commission of a crime.

It does seem absurd that firing a shot to defend yourself in your own home is a mandatory crime while instigating a confrontation outside your home, shooting and killing someone didn't even merit a serious investigation.