TYT: Abused Wife Faces 20 Years In Prison After Failed Stand-Your-Ground Defense

[ihavenobias]

Via The Huffington Post: "It took nearly a year's worth of violent physical abuse before Marissa Alexander decided to stand her ground against her husband. On Aug. 1, 2010, her husband cornered her in their Jacksonville, Fla., home. Alexander said she ran to the garage to escape, but the garage door was jammed, so Alexander grabbed a pistol. Her husband, Rico Gray, 36, saw the gun and threatened to kill her, Alexander would later say in court documents. Fearing for her life, she raised the pistol above her head and squeezed the trigger, the crackle of gunfire pelting the kitchen ceiling. While the shooting may have gotten Alexander out of one jam, it put her in another: She has been in a Florida jail since 2010 awaiting a mandatory sentence of 20 years in prison for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon...".* Ana Kasparian and Richard Eskow discuss on The Young Turks.

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[pscot]

1. Abused women don't have a leg to stand on

[FreakinDJ]

2. Alexander's decision to go back into the home armed with a gun

Pretty hard to argue with SHE made a decision to return into the house once having secured the fire arm.

Normally we here at DU call this "Premeditated"

[jjewell]

3. If she were my Sister....

there is NOTHING that would stop me from, at the very least, stomping her husband into a mud puddle.
20 years for shooting a kitchen ceiling?!! You have GOT to be kidding...

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Doublestandard if you're a victim of domestic violence.

I'm representing a mother of five children who were removed from her by Child Protection. Her only transgression: she didn't fight back when her husband hit her and hit their kids. Plus, he hit the kids when she was in another part of the house and she didn't know about their abuse. The only time she knew that her kids had been hit, she confronted her husband and he choked her.

So, what is the standard: you fight back or you don't? Seems to me you're at fault either way.