Stand Your Ground… and stop this nonsense

So at first I didn’t want to mention this George Zimmerman case because it seemed too obvious. Instead let’s talk about the Stand Your Ground law in general, and Marissa Alexander in particular. In case you missed it, Ms. Alexander, like Zimmerman, lives in Florida. Also like Zimmerman, she felt threatened and took action. And… that’s where the similarities end.

Unlike Zimmerman, Alexander fired a warning shot and hit no one. Zimmerman killed someone. Marissa was actually threatened. Her husband had been beating her for years. Zimmerman FOLLOWED his victim like a predator, then provoked him AFTER being told by police to stop stalking his prey.

Sadly, unlike Zimmerman, Alexander has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Let’s recap. Zimmerman admittedly killed someone, and is free. Alexander shot a ceiling and will be in prison for two decades. The reason is because of the Stand Your Ground law.

See on the surface, the Stand Your Ground law makes sense. If someone breaks into your home and tries to rape your children, you can shoot the intruder and you are protected by the law. Seems like a good idea. It would obviously apply to the Alexander situation who was physically assaulted multiple times. Nope. The system decided that the law did not apply to Alexander. Meanwhile, Zimmerman stalked Travon Martin and provoked him, giving Zimmerman the excuse he needed to rid the world of one of those dastardly mischievous Skittles fans. The law applied.

Ok. So it was self defense, but she didn’t hurt anyone. So why is Ms. Alexander getting 20 years? Florida has a 10-20-Life rule. It sets minimum terms for crimes committed with a gun. Hit someone in the head with a gun? 10 Years. Actually fire the gun? Then it  goes up to 20 Years. Kill someone with a bullet fired from said gun? 25 to Life.

Now I’m not sure how much race plays into either of these situations. I’m sure that both Travon Martin and George Zimmerman had their own racial biases against each other. Zimmerman saw Martin as a typical hood thug. He had a hoodie and watermelon tea, after all. Likewise, Martin saw Zimmerman as a “creepy ass cracka” according to star witness, and not very educated person, Rachel Jeantel. Personally, I think that Zimmerman was so convinced that Martin was going to commit a crime (because in his mind, that’s what young black people do), that he wanted to stop him. Except that our judicial punishment takes effect AFTER the crime. You can’t go and stop crimes. You can try to discourage crime. You can stop crime while it’s being committed. You can’t just assume someone is going to do something illegal and take proactive action.

Anyway. Back to Ms. Alexander. Race had nothing to do with her situation. I have no idea if her husband was black or not. Did the court treat her unfairly because of her race? Maybe. That’s a possibility. This country has a wonderful track record of treating minorities badly and using the courts against them.

The end result is that Florida, and all of the other states that have a law similar to the Stand Your Ground law, need to reevaluate the phrasing of this legal precedent. The idea and it’s purpose is good. It’s implementation is flawed. Severely flawed. Justice isn’t just about following the law. It’s about following the spirit of the law. The people who came up with the idea for the Stand Your Ground law wanted to protect people like Marissa Alexander. Maybe possibly, but doubtfully, they wanted to protect George Zimmerman. But lawyers managed to turn the law against those it was meant to protect. It’s up to the voters to fix this problem.