Why "Stand Your Ground" sucks...

[MrScorpio]

[davidn3600]

1. 20 years for firing a bullet in a wall?

There has to be more to the story.

[MrScorpio]

3. Yeah, she's black...

Stand Your Ground Marissa Alexander

Marissa Alexander has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Marissa is the victim here. Her husband beat her while she was pregnant. After yet another beating, Alexander fired a warning shot which traveled through a wall and into the ceiling. That shot saved her life. Prosecutor Angela Corey did not take into account that Marissa Alexander: Had a court injunction against her crazed husband,Had Given Birth 9 Days Earlier,Was trained to use a weapon and earned a concealed weapons permit.

http://justiceformarissa.blogspot.com

Marissa Alexander Sentenced: Florida Mom Who Shot At Abusive Husband Gets 20 Years In Prison

Marissa Alexander, the 31-year-old Florida woman who fired what her family calls a warning shot at her abusive husband, was sentenced Friday morning to 20 years in prison.

Alexander was convicted of three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for firing into a wall near her husband and his two young children at their Jacksonville home in 2010. Alexander has maintained that she wasn't trying to hurt anyone and that she was standing her ground against a man who had over the course of nearly a year punched and choked her on several different occasions. Alexander says that she believed she was protected that day under the state's Stand Your Ground Law, which gives people wide discretion in using deadly force to defend themselves.

A judge and a jury disagreed.

The State Attorney's Office offered a plea bargain that would have sent Alexander to prison for three years, but she rejected it, hoping to convince a jury that she had been defending herself when she fired the weapon.

Alexander's case has become the latest battleground in a fight against what Alexander's supporters call the misapplication of the Stand Your Ground Law and Florida's mandatory minimum sentencing laws, which offer stiff sentences for crimes involving guns.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/11/marissa-alexander-sentenced_n_1510113.html

[davidn3600]

5. According to what I've read...

She fled the scene, retrieved a gun, and then re-entered the scene with the gun and fired it without direct threat. You can see why a jury would logically conclude that it wasn't self defense since she at one point was able to put herself out of danger and then made the conscious decision to re-enter.

But 20 years for this is atrocious and cruel. And an example of some states having horrible sentencing guidelines. Florida isn't the only state with such whacky sentencing laws...California and Texas are two others that need some laws rewritten.

[Drale]

2. While Stand Your Ground laws are bullshit

this meme shows the racial disparity of our "justice" system. She didn't get 20 years because of the gun shot, she got 20 years because of her skin color.

[Jenoch]

4. The woman went to her estranged husband's home and

got into a huge fight with her husband. She then went to her car to get her gun. She then aimed her gun at her husband and his two sons. She shot the gun into a wall of the home while her husband and his two sons were a few feet away.

A state legislator who voted for the law that says anyone who commits a felony with a gun gets 10 years and anyone who discharges the gun gets 20 years and anyone who injures someone gets 20 to life said the law was not intended for a situation like this. it was intended for crime such as robbing a liquor store.

The woman made the mistake of leaving the domestic dispute and retrieving her gun and shooting it; 20 years does seem harsh.

[Ilsa]

6. Rocky Footing For "Stand Your Ground" Laws

After analyzing national crime statistics, Texas A&M University researcher Mark Hoekstra found that "stand your ground" laws have led to increased homicide rates in the more than 20 states that passed them.

"Homicides increased by 8% in states that passed the laws, relative to states that didn't pass the laws over the same time period," said Hoekstra, an associate professor in the Department of Economics. "Importantly, police classified these homicides as murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, not as justifiable homicides."

I'll try to find the link to the rest of the article.