SOURCEThe NAACP's Jacksonville chapter has thrown its support behind a woman who will be sentenced Monday in a shooting where she claimed self-defense against an abusive husband under the state's Stand Your Ground law.
Marissa Danielle Alexander, 31, was charged with three counts of aggravated assault in August 2010 after she fired a single shot into the ceiling of her home during a dispute that somehow turned physical.
A judge denied her immunity in a Stand Your Ground hearing. And after a jury found her guilty, she faces a mandatory term of 20 years in prison.
"This is a clear case of domestic violence against Marissa," branch President Isaiah Rumlin said Friday. "After looking into it and studying the case, this is a clear case of Stand Your Ground as it relates to what she had to do on the date that she did it."
Alexander's husband, Rico Gray, 36, was arrested in 2006 and 2009 on misdemeanor charges of domestic battery. Charges were dropped in one case and he was given probation in the other. Alexander had an injunction for protection against domestic violence against Gray following his 2009 arrest. Police have withheld Alexander's address and it is unclear if the couple were living together.
But authorities, on the accounts of her husband and her two stepsons, have said it was Alexander who began the violence, "hitting on" Gray. In her arrest report, all three said she pointed the gun in their direction before the shot was fired.
Less than five months later, Alexander was arrested, again, on a domestic battery charge involving her husband.
Alexander has maintained that it was Gray who was the aggressor, becoming enraged when she told him she was leaving him.
"He assaulted me, shoving, straggling and holding me against my will, preventing me from fleeing all while I begged him to leave," Alexander wrote in a blog posted by her first husband on a website set up in support of her.
In the post, Alexander wrote the attack began while she was using the restroom at their house. She said she had made it to the garage but could not leave when she realized she did not have her keys and the garage door was not working.
She said she then grabbed her gun, for which she said she has a concealed weapons permit, with her fear heightened by her husband's history of abusing women, including her. She said she went back inside and again met her husband in the kitchen where he then threatened her life.
"I was terrified from the first encounter and feared he came to do as he threatened," she wrote. That's when she said Gray "charged" at her.
"In fear and a desperate attempt, I lifted my weapon up, turned away and discharged a single shot in the wall up the ceiling."
Alexander wrote that the law states that she had no duty to retreat.
But a jury disagreed, finding her guilty as charged March 16.
Attorneys for both sides declined to comment on the specifics of the case with the sentencing still to come.
State Attorney Angela Corey, however, said the jury heard the whole story and the public will, too, at the sentencing. Then, she said, she will be willing to shed more light on a matter she said she has been "very involved with from the beginning."
Lincoln Alexander has also been involved from the beginning. He is Alexander's first husband of eight years. The two divorced in 2010.
Alexander said he has maintained his friendship with his ex and has witnessed the signs of abuse. He described Alexander's accounts of the multiple beatings she took from Gray, including one that left her with a black eye when she was eight months pregnant.
According to Alexander, his ex-wife was also hospitalized by police at the hands of her husband the night of her domestic battery arrest.
Alexander said he had never had any domestic issues in his marriage with her.
Marissa Alexander filed for divorce from her husband Tuesday, according to court records.
The NAACP has sent a letter to Circuit Judge James Daniel, asking him to hold off the sentencing and order a new trial.
charles.broward@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4162
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I originally read this a week ago, before the news had gotten ahold of it. Someone who read her blog pinged me on the story after it showed up in a related search for Trayvon's case + "Stand Your Ground". You can read the deposition
here. Any bets on her getting the harsh punishment (20 years - life) because she's 1) not white and 2) a woman?
Am I reading that wrong? The author of the article isn't very clear with who's who in the name department. It's a bit confusing.
I don't understand how shooting a ceiling is a greater offense than beating someone to the point they have to hospitalized.
Edited at 2012-04-24 01:17 pm (UTC)
And a woman who fights back against her abuser is a threat to any man who sympathizes with abusers or doesn't see much wrong with domestic abuse, or engages in something that could be considered it himself---a part of them is afraid of themselves or one of their friends getting sideswiped with this from their girlfriends or wives, without warning, because they can't be bothered to make sure they're not abusive.
It's the same reason a certain contingent of men won't shut up about false rape allegations---they're worried about being accused of rape "without warning" because they either can't be bothered to pay that much attention to whether she's consenting, or because they don't really understand consent.
It being acceptable for women to defend themselves against domestic abuse means that there's an impetus of potential deadly force---a threat---pushing men to adjust their behaviors toward the women in their lives, and of course they don't like that, it's so unfair, they might get shot for what they consider perfectly reasonable behavior.
whut are you doing.
Excuse me, what the fuck are you doing?
::can't even process the fuckery anymore. Can haz house in another state plz?::
I found this article and there's this part from it:
In Circuit Judge Elizabeth Senterfitt’s ruling, she stated that Alexander admitted in her own testimony that Gray had not inflicted serious bodily harm on her in the altercation and that she had other unobstructed exits to use, instead opting to pass by her husband on the way out to the garage where she got her gun.
But that still doesn't tell me why they wouldn't take all the previous abuse into account. Her state of mind is incredibly important and it seems like they're just disregarding it. :/
Especially when the law is called "Stand Your Ground." It's her fucking house.
Also, i don't understand this case at all. This woman has an abusive ex that may or may not live in the same house as her husband and her two stepsons. And there is this Lincoln guy in the mix. The stepsons and the husband say that "she" is the violent one and she was also arrested for domestic violence. But it was denied in a blog posted by Lincoln? And she went back to the house to get the gun and then went to the kitchen to meet her ex? I'm sorry but this case doesn't look like self-defense to me. And why 20 years for a simple shot in the ceilling? Was she on parole or something? Is it against the law to shoot at objects?
Lincoln Alexander is the first husband and he supports his ex-wife in her actions. Rico Gray is the current husband and the abusive partner. The two stepsons are Gray's children. The police previously arrested her for domestic battery but she was one who was hospitalised. At least that's the way I understand it.
Also, while I don't want to deny that domestic violence against men exists, I seriously doubt that it is the widespread problem that violence against women is. This is the case for one simple reason: in the vast majority of cases when a man and a woman get into an altercation, guess who's going to win? So I'd also venture a guess that she was the battered one here.
I'd also hazard a guess that the NAACP's point was more that Stand Your Ground has not been applied equally. Because let's face it, a black man (or woman) is not going to have the same fate under the law than a white man. Period.
It is a shitty law, but while it exists, no one should be arrested for legally acting under it. Not to mention that nobody should face twenty years in prison for shooting a ceiling. People regularly get lesser sentences for actually killing people.
It's like all the history and information we have about domestic violence and the toll it takes mentally and physically is just dismissed and all the courts can see is 'angry (black) woman being violent toward the menz!!'
Fuck all that noise. This case in particular is ridiculous and disgusting.