George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin. He was found not guilty this week largely because of Florida’s stand your ground laws. Marissa Alexander shot her gun up into the air and harmed no one. She was sentenced to 20 years after a judge ruled that the stand your ground laws did not apply in her case.
Alexander’s case has been put back under the spotlight this week in light of the George Zimmerman verdict . How could one man avoid murder charges due to Florida’s stand your ground laws while another person could get sentenced to 20 years in jail for firing a warning shot?
Of course, there are many differences between the two cases. Angela Corey, the state attorney who prosecuted Alexander and oversaw the Zimmerman case,said that the two cases should not be compared.
Corey said that there were “zero parallels” and that Alexander’s conviction was much more complicated than people are making it out to be.
Corey said : “I think social media is going to be the destruction of this country… How dare people just repeat something without checking it’s true.”
Still, it’s hard not to see the similarities between the two cases. Both involved guns, both involved a perceived threat, and both dealt with Florida’s stand your gun laws.
In Marissa Alexander’s case, the perceived threat came from her ex-husband, who she has a restraining order against. Alexander said that she fired a warning shot at her ex-husband to avoid being beaten.
The jury saw things differently and convicted Alexander of attempted murder.
Kevin Cobbin, Alexander’s attorney, said: “The judge decided not to make the call to grant ‘stand your ground.’ If it had been a white female, I believe she would have.”
Corey, however, argued that Alexander used her weapon out of anger instead of fear.
Corey said: “She put a round in the chamber, and she fired that shot out of anger, not fear… She didn’t need to use that gun. Those kids were scared to death. They ran for their lives.”
Are you surprised that Florida’s Stand Your Ground Laws were upheld for George Zimmerman and not Marissa Alexander? At least 40,000 people are outraged that Alexander is still behind bars. A petition was recently started asking Florida Governor Rick Scott too pardon Alexander.
John Oliver at the Daily Show was so dismayed by Alexader’s sentence that he dubbed Florida “The Worst State.”