Marissa Alexander Sentenced To 20 Yrs In Self-Defense Case For Firing Warning Shot; Angela Corey Refutes Marissa's Story

Marissa Alexandar has been sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for firing a gun at the Ceiling to scare off her Abusive Husband.
Where was Florida State Prosecutor Angela Corey for Marissa?





Florida woman sentenced to 20 years in controversial warning shot case

Saying he had no discretion under state law, a judge sentenced a Jacksonville, Florida, woman to 20 years in prison Friday for firing a warning shot in an effort to scare off her abusive husband.

Marissa Alexander unsuccessfully tried to use Florida's controversial "stand your ground" law to derail the prosecution, but a jury in March convicted her of aggravated assault after just 12 minutes of deliberation.

The case, which was prosecuted by the same state attorney who is handling the Trayvon Martin case, has gained the attention of civil rights leaders who say the African-American woman was persecuted because of her race.

After the sentencing, Rep. Corrine Brown confronted State Attorney Angela Corey in the hallway, accusing her of being overzealous, according to video from CNN affiliate WJXT.

"There is no justification for 20 years," Brown told Corey during an exchange frequently interrupted by onlookers. "All the community was asking for was mercy and justice," she said.

Corey said she had offered Alexander a plea bargain that would have resulted in a three-year prison sentence, but Alexander chose to take the case to a jury trial, where a conviction would carry a mandatory sentence under a Florida law known as "10-20-life."

The law mandates increased penalties for some felonies, including aggravated assault, in which a gun is carried or used.

Corey said the case deserved to be prosecuted because Alexander fired in the direction of a room where two children were standing.

Alexander said she was attempting to flee her husband, Rico Gray, on August 1, 2010, when she picked up a handgun and fired a shot into a wall.

She said her husband had read cell phone text messages that she had written to her ex-husband, got angry and tried to strangle her.

She said she escaped and ran to the garage, intending to drive away. But, she said, she forgot her keys, so she picked up her gun and went back into the house. She said her husband threatened to kill her, so she fired one shot.

"I believe when he threatened to kill me, that's what he was absolutely going to do," she said. "That's what he intended to do. Had I not discharged my weapon at that point, I would not be here."

Alexander's attorneys tried to use the state law that allows people to use potentially deadly force anywhere they feel reasonably threatened with serious harm or death.

But a previous judge in the case rejected the request, saying Alexander's decision to go back into the house was not consistent with someone in fear for her safety, according to the Florida Times Union newspaper.

A jury convicted Alexander in March and Judge James Daniel denied her request for a new trial in April.

Daniel handed down the sentence Friday after an emotional sentencing hearing during which Alexander's parents, 11-year-old daughter and pastor spoke on her behalf.

Several people had to be escorted from the courtroom after breaking out singing and chanting about a perceived lack of justice in the case, but Daniel made a point to say that he had no choice under state law.

"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," Daniel said.

Brown, the Jacksonville congresswoman, told reporters after the sentencing that the case was a product of "institutional racism."

"She was overcharged by the prosecutor. Period," Brown said. "She never should have been charged."

Brown has been more complimentary about Corey's work in the Trayvon Martin case, where her office filed second degree murder charges against neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in the February 26 death of the unarmed African-American teen-ager.

That case provoked nationwide protests demanding Zimmerman's arrest after an initial police investigation released him under the "stand your ground" law.



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Jeb Bush & The NRA Sponsored Florida's "Stand Your Ground" Law; Legal Excuse To Commit Murder

Author of "Stand Your Ground" law: George Zimmerman should probably be arrested for killing Trayvon Martin

The authors of Florida's controversial "stand your ground" self-defense law say George Zimmerman should probably be arrested for shooting Trayvon Martin, reports the Miami Herald.

"He has no protection under my law," former Sen. Durell Peaden told the newspaper.

Florida's law, called "stand your ground" by supporters and "shoot first" by critics, was passed in 2005 and permits residents to use deadly force if they "reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony."

Traditionally, self-defense laws did not typically extend beyond a person's home, but the Florida law, and at least 20 more passed across the country since them, allows a resident to "meet force with force" almost anywhere, including the street or a bar.

Zimmerman, 28, reportedly admitted to police that he shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on the evening of February 26. He was released without being charged after claiming he killed the boy in self-defense. But 911 recordings released over the weekend suggest that Zimmerman, who has a concealed weapons permit and volunteered in an apparently informal neighborhood watch program, pursued Martin, despite being told police were on their way.

It is the fact that Zimmerman ignored the 911 operator's advice not to follow Martin that former Sen. Peaden says disqualifies him from claiming self-defense under the law.

"The guy lost his defense right then," Peaden told the Miami Herald. "When he said 'I'm following him,' he lost his defense."

Rep. Dennis Baxley, Peaden's co-sponsor in the Florida House, agrees with his former colleague, telling the newspaper that the law does not license neighborhood watch or others who feel "like they have the authority to pursue and confront people. That is aggravating an incident right there."

Both co-sponsors told the newspaper, however, that they did not think the law needed to be re-examined.

"If you want to pass something, pass something that limits their ability to pursue and confront people," Baxley said. "It's about crime watch," he said. "What are the limitations of crime watch? Are you allowed to jump out and follow people and confront them? What do you think is going to happen? That's where it starts."

But during the town hall meeting in Sanford, Florida Rep. Geraldine Thompson promised the law's repeal would be a top priority for the state legislature's black caucus.

"If vigilante justice becomes the norm, will visitors feel comfortable coming to our state?," she asked.

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The NRA Wants the Law Protecting Trayvon Martin's Killer in All 50 States

The National Rifle Association continues to press more states to adopt Florida-style "stand your ground" laws like the one that's made it difficult to prosecute George Zimmerman, the self-appointed neighborhood watch captain who shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, in late February.

Zimmerman has claimed self-defense despite the fact that Martin was unarmed.

Since "stand your ground" laws allow people who feel threatened to use deadly force—even if they have an opportunity, as Zimmerman did, to safely avoid a confrontation—Zimmerman has not been arrested or charged. (If you haven't heard about the Martin case, get the full rundown in our explainer.)

The proliferation of these laws is part of a deliberate lobbying campaign by the NRA. In 2005, at the NRA's urging, Florida became the first state to pass a "stand your ground" law. Before that, most states required you to retreat from a confrontation unless you were inside your own home.

Now 24 states have these "stand your ground" laws, which critics call "shoot first" laws (Gawker's pseudonymous blogger "Mobuto Sese Seko" calls the laws "a great, legally roving murder bubble") because they authorize citizens to use deadly force even if the person who makes them feel threatened is, like Martin, unarmed.

Here's a map of the current situation:

Prosecutors hate "stand your ground" laws because they make it much harder to successfully prosecute people who claim self-defense. In Florida, a defendant doesn't have to actually prove he acted in self-defense—the prosecution has to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" that he didn't do so, a very high bar to clear. The upshot?

In 2010, the Tampa Bay Times reported that "justifiable homicides"—i.e., killings that were deemed legitimate—have skyrocketed in Florida over several years since the "stand your ground" law went into effect:

That's how you end up with stories with headlines like "How to Get Away With Murder." But the NRA continues to forge ahead, pushing to expand the legislation to even more states.

On March 1, just days after Martin was killed, the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action posted a blog post urging Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D) to sign a bill bringing a Florida-style law to his state. Dayton vetoed the bill, noting that law enforcement officials had complained it would make it harder for them to do their jobs. Over at Media Matters, Matt Gertz notes several other examples of the NRA pushing these laws in recent weeks:

On March 16, the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) criticized the Judiciary Committee chairman of Iowa's state Senate for failing to hold hearings on "NRA-initiated HF 2215, the Stand Your Ground/Castle Doctrine Enhancement." According to NRA-ILA, the bill would "remove a person's 'duty to retreat' from an attacker, allowing law-abiding citizens to stand their ground and protect themselves or their family anywhere they are lawfully present."

The group urged supporters to contact state senators and tell them to support the bill.

NRA-ILA previously told supporters to contact Democratic members of the Iowa House after they "left the Capitol building in an attempt to block consideration of these pro-gun bills" on February 29.

On March 14, NRA-ILA urged Alaskan supporters to contact their state senators and tell them to support House Bill 80, which it termed "important self-defense legislation that would provide that a law-abiding person, who is justified in using deadly force in self-defense, has 'no duty-to-retreat' from an attack if the person is in any place that that person has a legal right to be."

NRA-ILA also promoted the bill on March 5, March 8, and February 29.

The Massachusetts legislature's joint committee on the judiciary held a hearing on yet another similar law in February.


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Sources: CBS News, Mother Jones, MSNBC, Wikipedia, Google Maps

Cyan Brown vs NYPD: Is It About Race, Gender Or Crime?

Is Cyan Brown a Killer?


When a New York homeless man was stabbed to death on Christmas Eve, a 16-year-old student seemed like a hero. Then she was charged with manslaughter.

The first version of the Christmas Eve killing of Thomas Winston, a homeless man from Queens, went like this: Cyan Brown, a beautiful, 16-year-old high-school student, was buying a snack at a fried-chicken restaurant. Winston, 29, and several other men began to harass her. Brown fled into the subway. When Winston and some of his friends followed her there and tried to grope her, Brown stabbed Winston in the chest.

The New York Daily News portrayed the girl as a plucky urban vigilante; Winston, who would die at a hospital, was a “subway thug.”

A second version of Winston’s killing emerged three days later, after Cyan Brown had surrendered to the police. “She’s no victim, after all,” the News chirped with the assuredness only a tabloid can muster after fully changing its story. A police source now said it was Brown, the teenager, who was the “main aggressor” in the altercation. Winston never made it to the subway; he died outside of the chicken restaurant. Indeed, it was Brown who fled into the subway, other sources told the News, after she leapt on top of Winston, who was lying on his back in the snow, and sunk a knife into his heart.

Brown was arraigned Wednesday on the charge of first-degree manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.

I had these two conflicting accounts in mind—the heroic high-school girl vs. the cold-blooded killer—when I arrived at Queens Criminal Courthouse Wednesday morning. Cyan Brown’s attorney, Samuel Gregory, walked in a little after 9:30 a.m. He had been told that Brown’s arraignment hearing was indefinitely delayed. “I got a ticket for a show at 2,” Gregory said. “The Nutcracker. I was gonna take my kids. But that’s OK, I’ll do this instead.”

Gregory was tall with gray-white hair and a conspiratorial smile. He looked like Gary Busey if Busey had gotten his life together and become a criminal defense attorney. Gregory hadn’t offered quotes to morning papers, which I noted as odd, given that his law-office homepage was full of photos of his many cable TV appearances. “I don’t really drink anymore, but every once in a while I go out and have some fun,” Gregory explained. “Last night was one of those nights.” When the rest of the reporters arrived Wednesday, he would give them the Cyan Brown story.

We sat in a diner across the street from the courthouse, and Gregory explained his version of chicken-restaurant Rashomon. He didn’t dispute that Brown stabbed Winston in the chest—Gregory referred to an “unfortunate circumstance”—but claimed that she was acting in self-defense after Winston groped her, which he said Winston did both inside and outside the restaurant. “No doubt she was manhandled by this guy,” Gregory told me. “And he wasn’t done.”

So if Brown stabbed Winston in self-defense, what happened to her and her friends in the subway? “She was able to escape the seven or eight men with her friends and run for safety to the F Train,” Gregory explained, “where her pursuers attempted to drag her off the train, while telling her they’re going to kill her. She managed to wiggle away [from them], and the train doors shut.” As Gregory would have it, the real story of what happened at the chicken restaurant was somewhere between Versions No. 1 and 2, with Cyan Brown in the role of self-defending hero.

Back at the courthouse, Brown’s mother, Erika, and sister, Lynnea, were in a zombie-like stupor. Their Christmas Eve had come to abrupt end when a boy had arrived at their Queensbridge housing project apartment to deliver the news about Cyan. (In an irony, Brown lived in the same housing project that Winston had grown up in.) Erika Brown said she had been preparing a Christmas feast of turkey and ribs and lasagna—“no side dishes.” The sweater, hat, and gloves she bought for Cyan had already been wrapped and were sitting under the tree. “She didn’t even get a chance to open her gifts,” she said.

Cyan had been gone for 15 minutes—“Fifteen minutes!” her mom exclaimed—when the stabbing occurred. After fleeing on the subway, Brown had avoided the family’s apartment and hadn’t seen her mom for a further five days, until Dec. 29, when she appeared at the police station with Samuel Gregory to surrender. Erika Brown had spent a half hour with Cyan in the station before she was locked away Tuesday. Later that night, Cyan had called from her jail cell after 1 a.m. and talked to her sister for two hours.

About all the papers had offered about Cyan Brown was a photo in which she had the sturdy expression of a girl who could have been class president. I asked her mom what she was really like. Erika Brown said Cyan is the kind of daughter who is almost too forthcoming for her mother. “Too honest for me,” she said. “I’m like, ‘T.M.I., please!’” Erika said Cyan likes to read and dance. Cyan likes the rapper Nicki Minaj and has been known to call Minaj her sister. Cyan had often said that when she grew up she wanted to be an attorney, maybe, or a corrections officer. “My whole Christmas went out the door when they knocked on the door,” Erika Brown said. “Christmas was over for me.”

Thomas Winston’s Christmas Eve, meanwhile, was being pondered on the other end of Queens. The Big New York Fried Chicken & Pizza restaurant, near where the killing occurred, is across the street from Queensbridge projects. Big New York also sits directly on top of the subway station that Brown sprinted into on Christmas Eve. When I arrived at the scene after noon, Winston’s friends had erected a small memorial and poured Hennessy cognac onto the sidewalk. It gave the scene a sweet smell, as if a funeral were being conducted inside of a bar. “He died where the liquor’s poured,” one of Winston’s friends said.

The wake was running out of steam, the mourners had already delivered their eulogies to the press four or five times. Winston’s friends said he was a happy, goofy guy, despite some prior arrests the papers reported. Everyone called him Black Box. Winston had a 10-month-old daughter who was staying with his grandmother. According to a friend, Rasheen Harmon, Winston had been living at a homeless shelter in the Bronx. The specter of poverty hung over everything. When I asked Harmon if I could call him with more questions, he said, “You can call me if there’s a job opening, too.”

Winston’s friends were still flummoxed by the first version of the killing that circulated in the papers. That was the version which had Harmon as a would-be subway attacker or rapist. “When you read that he was a rapist, you think, Good for her. She did what she had to do. She defended herself,” said a friend of Winston’s man who was wearing a Yankees cap and sneakers but wouldn’t give his name. “But when you know the truth, you’re like”—he let out a stream of expletives.

Until the evidence comes out, a case like this was a muddle. I walked down the flight of subway stairs Cyan Brown had run down on Christmas Eve and tried to imagine the scene. Why was Brown fleeing? An 18-year-old woman who gave her name only as Rebekah and said she was a friend of Winston’s followed me.

After thinking about the evidence, I asked Rebekah, what if we stipulate that Winston didn’t chase Brown into the subway? What if we’re left with an allegedly nice girl and an allegedly nice guy, and the question of whether the guy might have attacked the girl, or she might have attacked him. What would the neighborhood think of that? The girl paused for a moment and then said, “To be honest, nobody knows what to say or do right now because it happened so fast.”



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Sources: NY Daily News, The Daily Beast, MSNBC, Google Maps