This column covered the Marissa Alexander case previously. What’s the status and significance of it? Alexander, from Jacksonville, Fla., reported that nine days after giving birth to a daughter in 2010, her estranged husband, Rico Gray, choked her, beat her and threatened to kill her in front of his two underage sons. She retreated to the garage of the house, seeking to get out and get away, she reported, but could not exit that way for some reason. In a signed deposition, Gray agreed with this rendition of the facts to that point. Alexander then went to her car, pulled out a gun and went back into the house. When Gray approached her again, reportedly saying, “Bitch, I’ll kill you!” she shot the gun once, above his head, as a warning shot she said, hitting the wall. She did not fire again and no one was hurt.
Alexander was subsequently arrested, charged with aggravated assault with a firearm, and prosecuted by State Attorney Angela Corey, the attorney who also unsuccessfully prosecuted George Zimmerman for killing Trayvon Martin. Attorney Corey said that Florida’s “stand-your-ground” law would not apply in this case because Alexander left the location where she was threatened, retrieved a gun, then came back to the situation. Attorney Corey said it was her belief that Alexander acted in anger not in fear, and was reckless in discharging the firearm. The jury agreed with her and took all of 12 minutes to convict Alexander once the case was turned over to them.
Because of Florida’s mandatory minimum laws, the commission of certain felonies (including aggravated assault) with a gun is punishable by a mandatory 10-year sentence. If the gun is discharged during that felony, the sentence is 20 years. If someone is killed or hurt, the sentence is life imprisonment. Judges have no discretion in the sentencing based on the particular facts of the situation.
Public outrage at this trial result was immediate and sustained. Eventually, in 2013, an appeals court ruled that the jury instructions were faulty, and Alexander was temporarily freed to house arrest. Angela Corey, convinced Alexander deserved punishment, re-tried her and this time asked the court to sentence her to 60 years of mandatory confinement (20 years for each person she could have harmed with her single gunshot). Attorney Corey offered Alexander a one-time deal: plead guilty and get time served as punishment. Alexander chose to accept the plea bargain rather than face the possibility of another jury verdict which would return her to prison. The court accepted the deal and Alexander walked away from prison last week.
Her freedom is very relative, however, even illusory. She will be under house arrest for two remaining years, wearing an ankle bracelet. She will also have to live with the label of being a convicted felon, which in Florida means she can no longer vote, plus the other corollary problems which she will have, such as having to check-off the part of employment applications which ask about incarceration. She has a great likelihood of being poverty-stricken, even homeless.
But this column is not aimed at provoking sympathy for Alexander. Yes, she does deserve our compassion and empathy, but the larger issue here is the movement to reform, if not destroy, the system of mandatory minimum sentencing in the USA, which alone is responsible for thousands—maybe millions—of African Americans in state and federal prisons. It is the most ornerous portion of the remaining “Rockefeller laws’ connected to the failed War on Drugs.
For most of American history, judges have had virtually unlimited authority in sentencing people convicted in court. This produced a pattern with vast discrepancies in sentencing from one court to the next, one state to the next, and from state to federal. In 1984, Congress tried to address this imbalance by passing the Sentencing Reform Act, which created the Sentencing Reform Commission and the first strict mandatory minimum sentences for specific felonies. Judicial discretion became severely limited.
Because marijuana was and is still classed with heroin and cocaine as a major drug, possession, sales and other connections with it could and did get people 5, 10, 20 years, and sometimes life sentences, even if these were first offences and non-violent.
There is a major movement ongoing to reduce or eliminate mandatory minimums in state and federal sentencing, and it deserves our community’s interest and support. It is in our best interest.
Professor David L. Horne is founder and executive director of PAPPEI, the Pan African Public Policy and Ethical Institute, which is a new 501(c)(3) pending community-based organization or non-governmental organization (NGO). It is the stepparent organization for the California Black Think Tank which still operates and which meets every fourth Friday.
DISCLAIMER: The beliefs and viewpoints expressed in opinion pieces, letters to the editor, by columnists and/or contributing writers are not necessarily those of OurWeekly.
