By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Angela Corey has become a minor legal celebrity for her tough-minded prosecution of the Trayvon Martin murder case. Her toughness has also drawn the ire of U.S. House member Corrine Brown in a racially charged case in Jacksonville. The case involves Marissa Alexander who was charged under Florida’s “10-20-life” law which mandates progressively tough penalties for violent felonies when firearms are involved.
Saying he had no choice, Judge James Daniel sentenced the mother of an 11-year-old to 20 years in prison after a jury convicted her of aggravated assault for firing a warning shot to discourage her estranged husband from choking her. In a cruel irony another judge had rejected Alexander’s invocation of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, ruling she wasn’t in fear for her safety when she returned to her house to get the car keys she had forgotten after she ran into her garage in an attempt to escape.
The prosecutor was singled out for failing to exercise discretion in the case. “There is no justification for 20 years,” Brown told Corey, “All the community was asking for was mercy and justice.”
Corey had offered Alexander a plea deal which carried a three year sentence. Alexander bet on the good sense of the jury, and crapped out. Judge Daniel seemed frustrated by the case:
“Under the state’s 10-20-life law, a conviction for aggravated assault where a firearm has been discharged carries a minimum and maximum sentence of 20 years without regarding to any extenuating or mitigating circumstances that may be present, such as those in this case.”
Rep. Brown was not so diplomatic saying, “She was overcharged by the prosecutor. Period. She never should have been charged.” Brown, the Jacksonville congresswoman, told reporters that the case was a product of “institutional racism.” Corey said the case deserved to be prosecuted because Alexander fired in the direction of a room where two children were standing.
Mandatory minimum sentences ignore mitigating factors and punish under a “bright-line” test. They are the darling of the “law and order” crowd who see the world in stark shades of black and white and who eschew any discretion for “lily-livered” judges who have the disturbing habit of mixing compassion and justice in sentencing decisions.
Proponents of the 1999 “10-20-life” law point to the fact that violent gun crime rates have dropped 30 percent statewide since the law was enacted. Is 20 years fair for a woman trying to defend herself? Should the prosecutor have heeded Rep. Brown’s suggestion and backed off the charges altogether? Can a law be just in the face of a result that flies in the face of “natural justice”?
Source: CNN
`Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
anon, Malisha was just using a common ‘saying’ (‘I’m a MAN because I beat my wife- yes, this is a stereotype, but it is one that invaded our national thought at one point. Jackie Gleason for example “to the moon Alice’ etc. it is just a figure of speech, she did not mean all MEN. It is an idiom.
Have objective analyses been conducted of the reduction or rise in homicides and assaults in Florida (and other “stand your ground” states) prior to vs. following the enactment of those laws? In other words, how effective have these laws been in reducing the rate of homicides and assaults?
I didn’t mean you Dredd.
This guy is a complete and utter asshole.
I fail to see how he is representative of “Men”.
I do wonder how he is so successful in partnering with women. What’s up with that?
Sometimes one could wonder whether these laws, and many like them, for instance ongoing, incessant, sexual intrusions by officials, are forms of mass conditioning, conducted intentionally so we will take what is coming up ahead with less “bitching?”
Rico Grey CAUSED the premature birth of her child. Rico Grey changed his story many times during the trial:
http://loop21.com/life/marissa-alexander-husband-rico-gray-speaks
Corey said Alexander’s actions, both on the day of the incident and after, helped the prosecutor and the jury determine that she had never acted out of fear, but instead out of anger. The self-defense claim did not hold up in court. Corey also noted the fact that Alexander turned down a deal that would have shaved 17 years off of her prison sentence, taking into account Gray’s violent past.
Alexander has maintained that she feared for her life in the shooting incident and was not willing to take the deal because she believes the law protects her actions.
Gray said he does not wish to see Alexander spend that much time away from her three children, including their daughter.
“Personally, I wish she would have taken the three years,” Gray said. “I don’t wish 20 years on no one.”
As for the relationship Gray has with Alexander’s family – that, too, is strained. Gray said he does not allow visitation with Alexander’s mother, Helen Jenkins, because he believes the family is trying to have their young daughter taken away.”
Here is the key to this man: ““I’m not on trial, why do I need to go through all of this?” Gray asked, rhetorically.”
Here is another woman, a wife of his, who describes her abuse and Rico Greys manipulation of the police and justice system, including stabbing HIMSELF with a fork to make the abuse of his wife look like a ‘fight’.; http://uptownmagazine.com/2012/05/florida-mother-i-could-have-been-marissa-alexander/
Malisha, thanks for the link, but I’m not reading 66 pages to discover whether you are accurately paraphrasing the guy or just projecting your own bullshit into it.
In the first 16 pages I see nothing to backup your claim.
If you want to tell me which pages I should read, please do, I will read them.
Sorry about your playboy interview, but i have no idea what you are referring to. Dewars? Or Tits?
Anon, I don’t need to refresh my research.
I’m the one who wrote my part of the PLAYBOY interview in such a way that the FR guy forced them to refuse to go to print. They paid the organization $1,000 anyway although they didn’t run the story. I only opine on things I actually have an opinion on.
You might have gotten a raw deal in the courts, Anon, I can’t say, but you haven’t reached the point of being able to assign me my research OR to disqualify my opinions when I issue them. You can differ with them of course.
As I wrote to you probably on another thread, I perfectly agree with all your criticisms of the courts. But when you generalize from small non-controlled samples to big sweeping pronouncements, from anecdotal evidence, all you get is an opinion. You have yours. Mine is way different. With all due respect. I’m just saying.
ANON: Here’s the link to the deposition. Indeed, the husband almost brags about beating up his baby-mamas and Alexander herself. Read it and see why I say he is saying it as if it is just “being a man”:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/90595503/Marissa-Alexander-Alleged-Victim-Disposition
I never knew a garage door had an emergency release. You learn something new each day.
I must say it is easier to learn when you are not being pursued by a man shouting “I am going to kill you, bitch!”
Judges still use tender years. If not by name then by couching it as “best interests of the child.”
Read the blogs at Fathers & Families and do some modern research.
Grazi Malisha. SYG!
.
“If the man had been put in the hospital by that woman in the past, if he had shot into the wall, if he was weakened by a physical condition: all other factors being the same except sex? Yes.”
I think many people would say, and yeah, especially in hindsight, that neither of the two (male or female) should’ve gone back.
But I also suspect if you polled people randomly about Alexander’s case and randomly switched genders, there would be greater support for a woman going back, and less support for a man going back.
(Especially too if there were some alternate way to escape as in the use of a garage door emergency release.)
By the way, the National Association of Certified Home Inspectors says:
“The following components should be present during inspections and devoid of defects:
manual (emergency) release handle. All garage doors should be equipped with this device, which will detach the door from the door opener when activated. It is vital during emergency situations, such as when a person becomes trapped beneath the door or when a power outage cuts electricity to the door opener. Inspectors should activate the handle to make sure that it works, although they will have to reset the handle if it does not reset automatically. In order for the handle to be accessible and obvious, it must be…
colored red;
easily distinguishable from rest of the garage opener system; and
no more than 6 feet above the standing surface.”
This suggests to me that her broken garage door had a working emergency release.
Why didn’t she use that?
If it was pointed out that a man had failed to use the emergency release, would people still be making the broken garage door argument?
Shano, I don’t think the content OR context of the argument matters. He admitted he had beaten her up in the past; the record reveals he had hospitalized her in the past; he admitted in his deposition that he was advancing on her and he was mad; he admitted he would have hurt her if she had not fired the shot. Who cares what they argued about? They could have argued about their respective opinions of the Duke or Brawley cases for all that matters. He was dangerous and she defended herself and Corey prosecuted her wrongly and inappropriately and unfairly etc.
How bad was the ‘altercation’? He was berating her over sending out baby photos. How bad of a argument could it have been?
Anon, you are so far off on this last demand for an apology from me that all I will say is
NO.
“Especially if you otherwise claim to believe in equality and not believe in violence”?
I don’t have to run my “claims of belief” past your censor, Anon. I can say I believe in something and you don’t get to say, “No she doesn’t unless she agrees with me on some statement I want to make.” Forget that one because I’m not going for it.
And, oh, check your stats, Anon. “Tender years” was from birth until school age, and it was only an element in custody decisions (usually “guardianship decisions”) from 1920 until its demolition when mothers began to ask for child support. I happen to believe that children should be allowed to live where they please, so long as their homes are safe. But as you pointed out, court means money. Money buys people. There are other ways to buy people but this is still the dominant way.
In the Clara Harris case, her defense attorney plays the Sirhan Sirhan defense.
“Her defense attorney, George Parnham, argued that Clara Harris acted out of sudden passion and should have received probation. He suggested that the victim himself would have wanted his wife to receive probation and continue raising their twin 4-year-old sons.”
Ironic, the one person who would have given her probation and she repeatedly ran over him.
If the man had been put in the hospital by that woman in the past, if he had shot into the wall, if he was weakened by a physical condition: all other factors being the same except sex? Yes.
@shano,
“I had a home invasion once and escaped to my car, but I did not have the car keys. Luckily I saw the criminal get into his car down the road and ran into the house to get my keys.
Was Marissa supposed to walk to a pay phone? Walk to a police station? He would have followed her in the car if he was really mad.”
I guess my response is this: were the kids in danger and did she have no way of getting the cops there on time? If so, I’d say she should return, with gun, and do what she felt is required. (I’d also ask what the weather was like and if she were clothed to endure it.)
If not, then, yeah, once she has left the place, during an altercation, she really shouldn’t return until much later, and when tempers have calmed down.
It seems she could go to a neighbors place, use her cell phone, walk to a police station or 7/11 or other store. (Not sure what a payphone is.)
IF IT WAS A MAN, and HE WENT BACK and otherwise took the exact same actions as Alexander, would you be defending his decisions to return?