In 2012, we had a very important case that may have not affected people of the entire United States but many were still affected: like victims of domestic violence and African Americans. In May 2012, Marissa Alexander was sentenced to 20 years behind bars, the mandatory minimum sentence in Florida for discharging a weapon. The harshness of her sentence set off a national uproar about the application of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, domestic abuse and ultimately race.
It all took place on July 31st, 2010, when Alexander, at the time a 29-year-old mother of three, returned to the home she once shared with her estranged husband, Rico Gray, in Jacksonville, Florida to gather some belongings. Gray, who had already been arrested three times in the past with domestic violence charges, showed up unexpectedly with his two sons from previous relationships and per Alexander, flew into a rage and threatened to kill her after he saw some text messages on her phone.
Alexander says she ran to her truck, but was unable to leave because the garage door was broken. She then retrieved her gun from her vehicle’s glove compartment, went back inside and fired a warning shot into the kitchen wall. Gray left the house and called 911, informing the operator that Alexander had shot at him and his children. Alexander, who had given birth to the couple’s daughter only nine days before the incident, was then charged with three counts of aggravated assault. At Alexander’s assault trial, the jury deliberated for less than 15 minutes and came back with results that Alexander, who had no prior criminal history, was guilty. Despite her use the “Stand Your Ground” defense for shooting a firing warning at her abusive husband.
Since the beginning of her tribulation, Alexander made it her priority to use her case as a way to bring attention to the institutional patterns of criminalizing survivors. Her case drew national attention largely due to George Zimmerman’s case, where the neighborhood watchman murdered 17-year-old Trayvon Martin after following him as he walked home from the convenience store yet was acquitted in 2013 on second-degree murder and manslaughter charges. Though, Zimmerman did not claim Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground self-defense law, Alexander believed she had a legitimate reason to benefit from the law in her case which intended to protect self-defense shooters from criminal prosecution.
In 2014, Alexander accepted a plea deal of her conviction in a jury trial to avoid a potential 60 years in prison. And on January 27,2017 a statement was released from a Free Marissa campaign, “Today, after three years behind bars and two years of house detention, Marissa Alexander was finally released from state confinement. Marissa Alexander has been punished for over 5 years for defending her life from a domestic violence attack threatening her life nine days after she gave birth.”
It has been a very long time for Marissa Alexander, but she is now finally free and home with her twins who are now 14, daughter who is four and her first ex-husband who has been a really good friend to her.