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I don't know if this is a Zimmerman repercussion or not, but twenty years for a warning shot seems a bit harsh....
People get less than that when they actually kill someone.
U.S. News - Marissa Alexander gets 20 years for firing warning shot after Stand Your Ground defense fails
This is way overboard. What did he get for abusing her? I hope she gets a better outcome on appeal.
It strikes me as a big stretch to use "stand your ground" as a defense in this case. I think the defense didn't have much of a case, so they threw the long bomb but it didn't pay off.
And realistically, she didn't get 20 years for a warning shot - she got 20 years for firing a gun in the direction of her husband and her children! She had an opportunity to retreat, but she elected to instead re-engage.
Appeals will be filed. Rhetoric will be spewed. No one will be happy.
Sound like aggravated assault to me....
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But a jury agreed with prosecutors that the law didn't apply because she left during the argument, got a gun and returned to confront him, WJXT reported.
She went to the garage and got the gun, but couldn't get the garage door open. She fired what she called a "warning shot". She would have gotten less time if she would have killed the abusive jerk.
Leaving to get a gun really blows self-defense out of the water.Quote:
Originally Posted by bigdogtx
I understand that and she was offered a three year plea deal also. I also understand mandatory sentencing guidelines came into play. My only point is that there has been so much "stand your ground" in the news that if you choose it as your defense, you had better have some pretty strong evidence to back you up. I don't think you can count on a jury giving you the benefit of the doubt.Quote:
Originally Posted by gasmitty
She should have taken the deal. Bad advice from a lawyer? Apparently the jury gave NO benefit of doubt.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gene83
Hard to say. This isn't one that I was following. I just saw it today. Maybe she ignored the lawyer's advice. That stuff happens. Obviously, in retrospect, the three years sounds like a pretty good deal, but maybe she thought she could beat the rap.Quote:
Originally Posted by Spirit51
She was in the wrong and shooting in the direction even where her children is just plain wrong.
Angela Corey doesn't seem to care much for the self-defense argument, whatever the spin.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gene83
Quote:
Originally Posted by cbp210
Florida 10-20-LIFE -- Mandatory Minimum Prison Sentences
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/k...Untitled-1.jpg
the judge looks shaky......20 years for a warning shot seems a little harsh.......30 days maybe but 20 years ***
She should of stayed in the garage and bunker down. If she was truly trapped in the house, he would of come for her, at that point she could of claimed SD. She didnt do that. She became the aggressor by retrieving the gun and engaging.Quote:
Originally Posted by Spirit51
IIRC there a couple of different versions of what happened here. In one version she was the initial aggressor, went to garage to retrieve gun, came back in pointed it at him and the kids and then fired the shot into the ceiling.
And then there is her version.
I am thinking that the folks in the court room maybe found her a little less credible than the other people that testified.