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The Jacksonville woman jailed in 2012 for firing a warning shot at her abusive husband is now free.

Marissa Alexander was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being denied freedom after defending her actions under Floridas controversial Stand Your Ground law. The mother of three was released after she completed two years of court-ordered home confinement, and previously served nearly three years in prison on weapons and assault charges.

In 2014, Alexander accepted a plea deal of her conviction in a jury trial to avoid a potential 60 years behind bars.

Today, after 3 years behind bars and 2 years of house detention, Marissa Alexander was finally released from state confinement, a statement from the Free Marissa Now campaign reads. Marissa Alexander has been punished for over 5 years for defending her life from a domestic violence attack threatening her life nine days after she gave birth. The Free Marissa Now Mobilization Campaign is thrilled that we have finally made it to the day that we can say Marissa Alexander has her freedom.

Since the beginning of her ordeal, Alexander prioritized the need to use her case as a way to bring attention to the institutional patterns of criminalizing survivors. Her case drew national attention in 2012largely due to George Zimmermans casealso in Floridawhere the neighborhood watchman murdered 17-year-old Trayvon Martin after following him as he walked home from the convenience store.

Zimmerman was acquitted in 2013 on second-degree murder and manslaughter charges and did not claim Floridas controversial Stand Your Ground self-defense law. But Alexander believed she had a legitimate reason to benefit from the law intended to protect self-defense shooters from criminal prosecution.

Alexander testified that her ex-husband, Rico Gray, threatened to kill her on Aug. 2010, moments before she fired her legally registered firearm into the ceiling of her Jacksonville home to prevent a domestic violence attack. In sworn statements, Gray acknowledged that he physically abused Alexander.

In one statement, Gray said I got five baby mamas and I put my hands on every last one of them except one, according toMic.

Shantell E. Jamison is a digital editor for EBONY.com and JETMAG.com. Her book, Drive Yourself in the Right Direction is available on Amazon. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter @Shantell_em and Instagram @Shantell_em.

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Stand Your Ground: Marissa Alexander is Finally Free - EBONY.com

Proposed state legislation that would expand Stand Your Grounds protections for defendants has passed its first major hurdle and separated the key figures in two prominent Jacksonville cases.

Opposed to the bill is Lucia McBath, the mother of Jordan Davis, the 17-year-old who was shot and killed outside a gas station over a dispute about loud rap music.

In favor of it is Marissa Alexander, a mother who faced up to 60 years in prison for shooting in the direction of a husband she said repeatedly abused her.

The bill shows one of the fissures that develops in any attempt to change the criminal justice system. While every Republican on the judiciary committee voted in favor of the bill, every Democrat voted against. The bill passed the committee. Supporters say its a piece of criminal-justice reform that will protect defendants rights. Opponents say it disproportionately hurts victims and leads to more violence.

Right now, those who use Floridas Stand Your Ground law to say they fired a gun in self-defense have to prove in a hearing they were acting in self-defense. The new bill, sponsored by Clay Countys Sen. Rob Bradley, would shift the burden of proof to the prosecution.

It makes it much more difficult for the prosecutors to try these cases, McBath said. Youll see the defense using that Stand Your Ground defense again and again whenever they can.

The cases that have attracted some of the most attention to Stand Your Ground have come from Jacksonvilles State Attorneys Office:

Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams and State Attorney Melissa Nelson both individually said they had no position on the new bill.

Public Defender Charlie Cofer said he and the Florida Public Defenders Association support the proposed law because even in an early evidentiary hearing, the prosecution should be the one having to prove facts, not the defense. The traditional burden of proof on all elements of criminal law is on the state to prove matters beyond reasonable doubt, so this is consistent with that case law.

McBath said Stand Your Ground is an embarrassment for the state of Florida, making it harder to earn convictions in murder cases without eyewitnesses. In her sons death, there were witnesses and video footage, and it still took two trials to earn a murder conviction.

Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a lobbying group seeking to change criminal-justice laws, says the bill supports the constitutional rights of defendants. The fundamental right to a trial is already severely burdened because of the [mandatory-minimum] sentencing laws in place, state policy director Greg Newburn said. To further add to that a requirement a defendant prove his or her innocence in a self-defense hearing makes those limitations intolerable.

Both Alexander and McBath said they understand why the other disagrees on the issue. I couldnt understand the agony of losing a child to the situation she did, Alexander said, but she also said the person who fires the weapon shouldnt have to be the one who proves she was in fear, even if it makes it more difficult to prosecute defendants.

Kenneth Nunn, a law professor at the University of Florida who focuses on the intersection of race and the criminal justice system, said he thinks the law doesnt solve the problem in Alexanders case. She suffered from having an aggressive prosecutor, under the guidance of former state attorney Angela Corey. He would agree mandatory-minimum laws related to gun violence need to change, but not laws about the burden of proof.

Bradley, a former prosecutor himself, said the defendants rights are too essential here. We have the tools that law enforcement and state attorneys need to successfully prosecute violent crime. Ive consistently been in favor of making sure they have the tools to be successful but Im also passionate about our constitution: the understanding that youre innocent until proven guilty, or the government has burden of proof from beginning to end of a case. Those are very important pillars of our criminal justice system.

Andrew Pantazi: (904) 359-4310

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Jacksonville again at the center of Stand Your Ground debate - Florida Times-Union

Bradenton Herald

Reject legislation loosening 'stand your ground' defense | Bradenton ... Bradenton Herald Since Florida passed the stand your ground law in 2005, the state's firearm homicide rate has increased 32 percent. At least 26 Florida teens and children have ... 'Standing your ground' may get easierFlorida Courier NRA-ILA | Florida Alert! FAKE ACTIVISTS at Senate Judiciary ...NRA ILA all 4 news articles »

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Reject legislation loosening 'stand your ground' defense | Bradenton ... - Bradenton Herald

Wednesday, January 25, 12:08 PM EST

By Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida

The Republican-dominated Judiciary Committee voted 5-4 along party lines to back the proposal (SB 128) by Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island.

The measure would shift the burden of proof from defendants to prosecutors during pretrial evidentiary hearings in stand your ground cases.

The committee also backed an amendment by Bradley that would make the contents of the pretrial hearings inadmissible at trial if self-defense claims arent granted.

Opponents contended at Tuesdays committee meeting that the stand your ground law has disproportionate effects, as it is used more successfully as a defense when white shooters kill African-Americans. But Bradley called the bill color-blind.

What I hope is the outcome of this is something that I hope we all agree on, that people who should not be arrested are not arrested and people who should not go to trial do not go to trial, Bradley said.

If I believed that an individual who was otherwise guilty would go free, because this bill passed, then I wouldnt have filed the bill, he said.

The proposal stems from a Florida Supreme Court ruling in 2015 that said defendants have the burden of proof to show they should be shielded from prosecution under the stand your ground law.

In stand your ground cases, pretrial evidentiary hearings are held to determine whether defendants should be immune from prosecution.

Bradleys proposal, which has the support of the National Rifle Association and the Florida Public Defender Association, was approved by the Senate in a 24-12 vote last year.

The current measure has only one more stop ahead, the Rules Committee, before reaching the Senate floor.

Typically, bills are scheduled for three committee appearance before going on the floor.

The proposal has returned for the 2017 session, which starts March 7, because it failed to get through the House committee process last year. Rep. Bobby Payne, R-Palatka, has filed the House version of this years bill (HB 245).

The law has long been controversial. It says people can use deadly force and do not have a duty to retreat if they think it is necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm.

Critics of Bradleys bill said it would put an end to cases before all the facts are revealed.

Debra Harrison Rumberger of the League of Women Voters said the law already gives an advantage to people who use deadly force in cases of a perceived threat and that Florida will become more dangerous in shifting the burden of proof.

Bradleys bill also comes as the House and Senate consider legislation that would allow people with concealed-weapons licenses to openly carry handguns and carry guns at places such as college campuses.

Combined with the proposed open-carry and campus-carry bills, the risks of standing your ground will almost certainly increase violence, Harrison Rumberger said.

Lucia McBath, representing Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, said Bradleys proposed change would add stress for families of people killed.

Having lived through this grueling experience first-hand, with two trials for my sons murder, I can attest to the anguish and the pain that this process elicits, said McBath, whose 17-year-old son Jordan Davis was killed in a dispute over loud music at a Jacksonville gas station in 2012.

We should not make it harder for family members to achieve the justice that they deserve by making gun crimes harder to prosecute, she said.

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Senate committee OKs stand your ground change that shifts burden to prosecutors - Jacksonville Daily Record

The paste-eating idiot above is named Karl Henson.

Karl tried to sell Sumdood a cell phone. Sumdood decided to opt for the fleet-feet discount instead of providing Karl currency. Karl did not care for this course of action, so he pulled out his handgun and fired at the thief.

And fired.

And fired.

And fired.

And fired.

And fired.

And fired.

According to new court documents, a new Missouri gun law could be the reason Karl Henson shot a man attempting to rob him Monday night.

The incident happened on Riva Ridge Court in northeast Columbia. Henson called in a robbery at about 5 p.m. and stated he had shot at the alleged would-be thief six or seven times.

Police said the man and Henson had met up on Riva Ridge to discuss whether or not the man wanted to buy Hensons cellphone.

Henson said the man was looking at the phone and then suddenly took off with it and started running toward the duplexes on the cul-de-sac.

Thats when Henson said he shot at him and saw the would-be buyer fall to the ground hard. He then got back up and continued running.

Henson said he thought he might have hit him and police used a K9 track. Police said the victim ended up driving himself to a local hospital.

The probable-cause statement indicates a witness who lived in a duplex nearby heard the shots and walked outside. He saw a man with his hands in his pockets and limping. When the witness asked if the man was OK, the man ignored him and kept walking.

Henson told police the only reason I thought it was OK to shoot at him while he was running away was because of what happened with the new year on the law change.

Officer Spirit Stevens, who wrote the probable-cause statement, said Henson stated something along the lines of the old law, you werent allowed to shoot somebody when their back was turned to you.

Henson could be alluding to several new gun laws that are now in effect, including a stand your ground right, meaning people no longer have a duty to retreat from danger before shooting in any place where they have a legal right to be present.

Yep. Cletus Dingleberry Jr. here seems to think that stand your ground means you can shoot anyone for any reason you know, the exact same bullcrap explanation of what stand your ground means that the dishonest mainstream media and gun control proponents have been claiming since George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Marton in a clearcut case of self-defense that didnt involve Floridas stand your ground law at all.

Its tempting to cite Mr. Hensons charges of first-degree assault and armed criminal action as a case of media malpracticewhich there is certainly far too much of regarding firearms laws in general and stand your ground laws in specificbut the reality of the matter is that as an armed citizen, it is your duty to learn the laws and obtain proper training on how and when you can use your firearm in lawful self defense.

Chasing Sumdood around a duplex and slinging lead at him over petty theft is something only a moron would do.

Learn your states laws, folks, and dont be this stupid.

Author's Bio: Bob Owens

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Blithering Idiot Shoots Fleeing Thief, Says New Laws Gave Him The ... - Bearing Arms