Marissa Alexander is the Florida woman who was sentenced to consecutive 20-year sentences on three counts of aggravated assault for firing a warning shot to warn off her now ex-husband, Rico Gray, while 2 of his children were present. Alexander’s ex-husband admitted his history of abusing Alexander and other women in a deposition. So his history of violence is not in dispute.
An Appeals Court threw out Alexander’s conviction and sentence because the Trial judge erred by imposing the burden on Alexander to prove that she was acting in self-defense.
The judge decided that she may serve those sentences concurrently. However, the rules changed, requiring that sentences for multiple counts be served consecutively.
This means that if Marissa Alexander is convicted again, she faces an effective life sentence of 3 consecutive 20-year terms for firing a warning shot that neither wounded nor killed anyone.
Michael Dunn killed Jordan Davis and shot at the car he and his friends were in. Dunn was not convicted for killing Jordan Davis, but he was convicted of trying to kill Davis’s friends. Then, there’s George Zimmerman. He was believed to be acting in self-defense because 17-year old Trayvon Martin walked by his car while wearing a hoodie and carrying snacks.
These cases illustrate why critics of Florida’s “stand your ground” law amounts to a license for white males to kill and a threat to everyone else. Even if racism and, as shown by the Alexander case, sexism, weren’t factors, Florida’s stand your ground law resulted in a dramatic increase of gun related deaths since the law was passed. When combined with a study which shows higher rates of gun related deaths in stand your ground states than in non-stand your ground states, the conclusion is obvious. More people get killed because of stand your ground laws. Then there is the appearance of a racial double standard that people get from the outcome of these cases.
On one hand, white men have a right to “stand their ground” on public streets, cars and anywhere else. Racist stereotypes about young black men provide people like George Zimmerman and Michael Dunn with a “credible” story that they reasonably feared for their lives. Conversely, when an abusive husband threatens a black woman and she fires a warning shot into the ceiling, somehow that isn’t seen as an act in self-defense.
As several of my colleagues pointed out at the time, Michael Dunn got away with taking Jordan Davis’ and he did so with a story that had more holes in it than a slice of Swiss cheese. George Zimmerman is on the street, threatening women and brandishing guns at them. But Angela Cory’s office is determined to send Marissa Alexander to jail for the rest of her life for firing a warning shot.
In another cruel twist of fate, Florida is expected to pass a “warning-shot” bill during this legislative session. This bill would create an exemption to the 20-year sentencing requirement for warning shots. While it would help Marissa Alexander, if it could be applied in her case, the “warning shot” law is the evil cousin of “stand your ground”. As State Senator Christopher Smith (D-Fort Lauderdale) put it: “”‘The Legislature is telling me to shoot a warning shot.’ And that warning shot may not be in the air. … To me, that’s inviting negligence.”
If stand your ground is an indicator, this bill is another license for NRA type white guys to shoot people for being in public while black and provides racial minorities and women with yet another law that works to the detriment of their personal safety.
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