Florida State Attorney Angela Corey, in what appears to most as a retaliatory decision, has tripled down on the sentence to be served should the retrial of Marissa Alexander deliver a guilty plea.
Marissa Alexander’s nightmare began that fateful night when she defended herself by firing a warning shot to stop her abusive husband from beating her. Just days before, she had given birth. Her estranged husband, Rico Gray, accused her of being unfaithful and alleged the baby was not his. When he went into a rage, Marissa locked herself in the bathroom. He broke the door down and shoved her to the floor. She somehow was able to escape his grip and ran to the garage, where she retrieved a gun from a car. She then fired a warning shot to stop Gray from attacking her and following through with his threat to kill her.
Prosecutors say the shot hit the wall, not the ceiling, and could have hit Gray or his children. At one point they offered Alexander a plea deal of three years in prison. She turned that down and chose to go to trial.
![By moggs oceanlane (Flickr: Abuse: power & control behaviors) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](http://occupyworldwrites.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/2_Cycle_of_abuse_power__control_issues_in_domestic_abuse_situations-300x300.gif)
By moggs oceanlane (Flickr: Abuse: power & control behaviors) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Corey’s triple-down sentence of 60 years in prison for Alexander stems from Florida’s 10-20-Life law. This law provides that possession of a firearm while committing certain felonies is punishable by at least 10 years in prison, while discharging a firearm while committing those felonies is punishable by at least a 20-year sentence. Hurting or killing someone in those circumstances requires 25 years to life in prison.
Alexander has to be found guilty of a felony for the 10-20-Life sentencing guidelines to apply. This case has now brought legislation forward in Florida that would make exceptions to this law for cases like Alexanders, but it does not address the underlying issues that make this particular case so reprehensible. Also at argument is whether the three 20-year terms Corey holds over Alexander will be served concurrently or consecutively.
Corey does not seem to understand that one in every four women in the US will experience domestic violence during her lifetime. Every nine seconds in America, a woman is abused or assaulted. In 2010, 113,378 crimes of domestic violence were reported to Florida law enforcement agencies, resulting in 67,810 arrests; a fact Corey seems completely oblivious to. These statistics do not reflect the incidences that are never reported.
![Image By moggs oceanlane (Flickr: Abuse: cycle of violence) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](http://occupyworldwrites.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Abuse_cycle_of_domestic_violence-300x246.jpg)
Image By moggs oceanlane (Flickr: Abuse: cycle of violence) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons