Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law was used to justify what George Zimmerman did, the killing of Trayvon Martin.
But the same law was used to justify the 20 year prison term of a black woman, Marissa Alexander, who fired a warning shot into the ceiling to ward off the threat of a beating by her husband, who had already been cited for abuse of Alexander.
Marissa Alexander did not kill anyone, only used a gun to threaten a husband who was threatening to her, and how can anyone see this as fair, to give her 20 years without parole possibility, and have her child conceived with this husband brought up by him, with her having little or no contact with her own child?
How can anyone NOT see the injustice in this, and the fact that the jury in her case only took 12 minutes to convict her? Is it any wonder that African Americans see this as open season for whites who are racists to fire guns on blacks and get away with it through the justice system?
Is it any wonder that the offices of Governor Rick Scott have faced sit ins, insisting that the Governor and the legislature do something about Marissa Alexander? Should not this law be repealed, as Attorney General Eric Holder declared yesterday? Should not Jeb Bush, the former Governor, and brother and son of two Presidents, explain how he can justify this law he signed in 2005, and should he not be expected to lead the fight to have this unjust, discriminatory, and dangerous law repealed?
And should not “Stand Your Ground” laws be reviewed as dangers to the civil rights of minorities, giving whites open season for a new, different form of lynching, as in the Jim Crow Era of Segregation?
At the least, Marissa Alexander needs to be released immediately, have her child given back to her with the father not allowed to have contact anymore because of his abusive behavior, and compensation paid to Alexander for her unjust conviction and time in prison!