She shouldn’t have said she fired a warning shot, she should have just said she missed her target or better yet, killed the son of a bitch and she wouldn’t have been charged at all. Rep. Corrine Brown is a racist bitch, she had no problem with rushing to charge George Zimmerman, not only had no problem but insisted on it, now she is accusing Angela Corey, prosecutor who also charged Zimmerman, with being over zealous. – Phoebe
Fri May 11, 2012
(CNN) — 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.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/11/justice/florida-stand-ground-sentencing/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
Daily Archives: May 14, 2012
Ron Paul Ends Campaign
Ron Paul all but ends presidential campaign, continues delegate strategy
Ron Paul announced Monday that his campaign will no longer spend money on presidential nominating contests due to lack of funds, effectively ending his campaign for the Republican nomination.
Paul wrote the following in an open letter to supporters:
Our campaign will continue to work in the state convention process. We will continue to take leadership positions, win delegates, and carry a strong message to the Republican National Convention that Liberty is the way of the future. Moving forward, however, we will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted. Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have.
Paul, the only Republican presidential candidate actively campaigning against front-runner Mitt Romney, encouraged his supporters to continue their involvement in the presidential race as well as down-ballot races across the country, and to spread his message of lower spending and the protection of individual liberties. He stressed that he will continue working to win delegates.
“In the coming days, my campaign leadership will lay out to you our delegate strategy and what you can do to help, so please stay tuned,” Paul wrote. He stopped short of an outright suspension, an option all of his fellow competitors (besides Romney) have chosen.
Two weeks ago, Paul and his supporters cheered Paul’s delegate wins in Maine and Nevada. But as Yahoo News reported, those wins didn’t necessarily move Paul any closer to winning his party’s nomination.
Paul has long touted a strategy to rack up delegates as a way to become a part of this summer’s convention process, absent an outright win.
Paul currently has 104 delegates and Romney has 966, according to the Associated Press.
In recent weeks, Paul supporters have been increasingly vocal in their attacks on establishment Republicans, accusing them of employing “dirty tricks” to benefit Romney over Paul.
Paul’s campaign attempted to quash the most recent attack Sunday by defending the Republican National Committee and Chairman Reince Priebus against accusations the party is violating Rule 11, which bans favoritism, by creating a joint fundraising committee with Romney in April.
Paul campaign chairman Jesse Benton reconfirmed in a statement Sunday that the Paul campaign was also invited by the RNC to set up a joint committee and declined.
“The RNC offered to set up a joint fundraising committee with the Paul campaign and were very clear that if Dr. Paul became the nominee, the Victory Operation would be behind him 100 percent,” Benton said. “They also were clear that they would hold off if our campaign objected. I gave my full consent for the RNC to move forward.”
