pro_junior Report This Comment Date: March 30, 2012 12:12AM
okay...I'll bite...
Definition of ARREST
transitive verb
1
a : to bring to a stop <sickness arrested his activities> b : check, slow
c : to make inactive <an arrested tumor>
2
: seize, capture; specifically : to take or keep in custody by authority of
law
3
: to catch suddenly and engagingly <arrest attention>
— ar·rest·er also ar·res·tor noun
— ar·rest·ment noun
woberto Report This Comment Date: May 20, 2012 04:46AM
Marissa Alexander had never been arrested before she fired a bullet at a wall
one day in 2010 to scare off her husband when she felt he was threatening
her.
Nobody got hurt, but this month a Florida judge was bound by state law to
sentence her to 20 years in prison.
Alexander, a 31-year-old mother of a toddler and 11-year-old twins, knew it was
coming.
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She had claimed self-defence, tried to invoke Florida's "stand your
ground" law and rejected plea deals that could have gotten her a much
shorter sentence.
A jury found her guilty as charged: aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Because she fired a gun while committing a felony, Florida's mandatory-minimum
gun law dictated the 20-year sentence.
Her case in Jacksonville has drawn a fresh round of criticism aimed at
mandatory-minimum sentencing laws.
The local NAACP chapter and the district's African-American congresswoman say
blacks more often are incarcerated for long periods because of overzealous
prosecutors and judges bound by the wrong-headed statute. Alexander is
black.
It also has added fuel to the controversy over Florida's "stand your
ground" law, which the judge would not allow Alexander to invoke.
State Attorney Angela Corey, who also is overseeing the prosecution of shooter
George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin case, stands by the handling of
Alexander's case. Corey says she believes Alexander aimed the gun at the man and
his two sons, and the bullet she fired could have ricocheted and hit any of
them.
At the May 11 sentencing, Alexander's relatives begged Circuit Judge James
Daniel for leniency but he said the decision was "out of my
hands."
"The Legislature has not given me the discretion to do what the family and
many others have asked me to do," he said.
The state's "10-20-life" law was implemented in 1999 and credited with
helping to lower the violent crime rate. Anyone who shows a gun in the
commission of certain felonies gets an automatic 10 years in prison. Fire the
gun, and it's an automatic 20 years. Shoot and wound someone, and it's 25 years
to life.
Critics say Alexander's case underscores the unfair sentences that can result
when laws strip judges of discretion. About two-thirds of the states have
mandatory-minimum sentencing laws, mostly for drug crimes, according to a
website for the Families Against Mandatory Minimums advocacy group.
"We're not saying she's not guilty of a crime, we're not saying that she
doesn't deserve some sort of sanction by the court," said Greg Newburn,
Florida director for the group. Rather, he said, the judge should have the
authority to decide an appropriate sanction after hearing all the unique
circumstances of the case.
Congresswoman Corinne Brown has been an advocate for Alexander. Brown was
present at the sentencing, where she and Corey had a brief, terse exchange
afterward as sign-toting supporters rallied outside the courthouse.
"The Florida criminal justice system has sent two clear messages
today," Brown said afterward. "One is that if women who are victims of
domestic violence try to protect themselves, the `Stand Your Ground Law' will
not apply to them. ... The second message is that if you are black, the system
will treat you differently."
Victor Crist was a Republican state legislator who crafted the
"10-20-life" bill enacted in 1999 in Governor Jeb Bush's first term.
He said Alexander's sentence – if she truly did fire a warning shot and wasn't
trying to kill her husband – is not what lawmakers wanted.
"We were trying to get at the thug who was robbing a liquor store who had a
gun in his possession or pulled out the gun and threatened someone or shot
someone during the commission of the crime," said Crist, who served in the
state House and Senate for 18 years before being elected Hillsborough County
commissioner.
On August 1, 2010, Alexander was working for a payroll software company. She was
estranged from her husband, Rico Gray, and had a restraining order against him,
even though they'd had a baby together just nine days before. Thinking he was
gone, she went to their former home to retrieve the rest of her clothes, family
members said.
An argument ensued, and Alexander said she feared for her life when she went out
to her vehicle and retrieved the gun she legally owned. She came back inside and
ended up firing a shot into the wall, which ricocheted into the ceiling.
Gray testified that he saw Alexander point the gun at him and looked away before
she fired the shot. He claims she was the aggressor, and he had begged her to
put away the weapon.
A judge threw out Alexander's "stand your ground" self-defense claim,
noting that she could have run out of the house to escape her husband but
instead got the gun and went back inside. Alexander rejected a plea deal that
would have resulted in a three-year prison sentence and chose to go to trial. A
jury deliberated 12 minutes before convicting her.
"The irony of the 10-20-life law is the people who actually think they're
innocent of the crime, they roll the dice and take their chances, and they get
the really harsh prison sentences," Newburn said. "Whereas the people
who think they are actually guilty of the crime take the plea deal and get out
(of prison) well before. So it certainly isn't working the way it is
intended."
Alexander was also charged with domestic battery four months after the shooting
in another assault on Gray. She pleaded no contest and was sentenced to time
served.
Her family says that doesn't erase the fact that a relatively law-abiding person
– a woman with a master's degree – who was making positive contributions to
society will endure prison for two decades over a single violation in which no
one was hurt.
"She had a restraining order against him. Now Marissa is incarcerated and
he's not," said her father, Raoul Jenkins. "I'm wrestling with that in
my mind and trying to determine how the system worked that detail out. It's
really frustrating."