Marissa Alexander Agrees To Plea Deal Which Greatly Reduces Sentence

Shame she had to take a plea deal when she should not have been charged in the first place.

Marissa Alexander Agrees To Plea Deal That Will Prevent Her From Serving 20 Year Sentence

The Florida mother who was sentenced to 20 years behind bars for firing a warning shot to keep her abusive husband at bay won’t be jailed for nearly as long as she previously feared.

According to First Coast News reports:

Facing a possible 60 years in prison for allegedly firing a gun at her estranged husband and his two sons, Marissa Alexander agreed Monday to a plea deal that effectively ends the four-year old criminal case against her.

According to the terms of the plea, Alexander was ordered to serve three years in prison after pleading guilty to all three counts against her. The Florida Times-Union reports the Alexander will get credit for the 1,030 days she’s already spent in jail.

That means she’ll have to spend 65 days in jail. Alexander will return to Duval County Jail following Monday’s hearing. She’ll be released on Jan. 27.

Because the second count against Alexander is considered an ‘open plea,’ she could still be sentenced to five years in prison at the hearing on Jan. 27.

The case has drawn national attention, in part because Alexander unsuccessfully tried to invoke a Stand Your Ground defense, and later because, when she was convicted, Florida’s 10-20-Life laws mandated a stringent 20-year prison sentence — despite the fact that her shot didn’t injure or even hit anyone.

Alexander herself became the focus of anti-domestic violence advocates, since she claimed the victim in the case, estranged husband Rico Gray, was a serial abuser who attacked her first.

Alexander was convicted by a jury in 2012 of three counts of aggravated assault, but that conviction was overturned on appeal because of an error in jury instructions.

Following her jail term, Alexander’s been ordered to spend two years under community control, or house arrest, with a monitor.

It’s great that she won’t be behind bars for decades but it’s really upsetting to think this woman is now a convict for trying to protect herself and her kids from an abusive husband. It’s also pretty infuriating that George Zimmerman didn’t have to strike any plea deals to keep himself out of jai.

APImages