UPDATE: The link below was wrong, donations can be made at http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/justice-for-marissa-a-fundraiser-for-freedom
Statement to the press:
An appalling injustice took place today in Jacksonville, Florida when Judge James Daniel failed to grant Marissa Alexander’s request to be released on bond until a verdict is reached in her new trial that begins March 31, 2014. Another status hearing on the case was set for January 15. At the end of September, a Florida Appeals Court threw out the guilty verdict against Ms. Alexander and ordered a new trial due to severe problems in the instructions to the jury. With the overturn of the original verdict, Marissa Alexander is no longer guilty in the eyes of the law, but she is still in prison.
Marissa Alexander, an African American mother and daughter, was sentenced to 20 years for firing a warning shot to stop an attack by her abusive ex-husband — an act of self-defense that injured no one. She was denied a Stand Your Ground defense. She has already been separated from her young children and family for nearly three years. The youngest was only 9 days old when the domestic violence incident occurred.
Release on personal recognizance or bond is supposed to be allowed to defendants who present no risk of flight or danger to the community. This mother of three is firmly rooted in the Jacksonville community by her connections to family, children and friends. She poses no danger to the public. Or has the state of Florida decided that she is a danger for the sole reason that she is a black woman?
It is well documented that black women and other marginalized people are likely to be criminalized, prosecuted, and incarcerated while trying to navigate and survive the conditions of violence in their lives. This is especially true for black women who are subjected to racist stereotypes that paint them as overly aggressive and unworthy.
The Free Marissa Now Mobilization Campaign is undaunted in our passion to win Marissa Alexander’s release. We have launched the Marissa Alexander Freedom Fund campaign to raise $10,000 by the end of the year to help pay for legal costs of the new trial. Donors can give at tiny.cc/freedomfundraiser.
Our movement is thousands strong and we will keep going.
We have a trial to help win and we will continue to organize for Marissa’s freedom and the end of domestic violence and mass incarceration. The world is watching and we will not rest until justice is won.
Free Marissa Now Mobilization Campaign is a grassroots campaign led by a core of organizers representing the African American/Black Women’s Cultural Alliance, New Jim Crow Movement – Jacksonville, Radical Women, INCITE!, Southern Freedom Movement, and the Pacific Northwest Alliance to Free Marissa Alexander.
Not Gulty, but still in prison…why???
Really hard to believe she is still in jail.
IS THAT EVEN LEGAL? IF HER CONVICTION HAS BEEN OVERTURNED AND SHE’S NOW NOT GUILTY… WHY STILL BEHIND BARS? THIS IS INSANE!
This half-story about a “warning shot” is sympathy and outrage producing, I get that. To honestly support and defend Ms Alexander, we owe it to her and ourselves to portray a true and complete story, correct?
From the court files:
– A warning shot is when you shoot into the air or down on the ground
– MA aimed and fired a bullet at eye level of her (abusive) husband and right above the head of his 12-year-old son.
– The 12-year-old child testified to a jury “I thought I was fixin’ to die.”
I’m sorry, but discharging a firearm at that close range with not one but two children standing right next to the targeted person being endangered is no misdemeanor, abusive man or not.
To make matters worse, after being arrested and charged for this act, and ordered upon release on bail to have no contact with the alleged victims, within a few days she went to his house AGAIN…where a “fight” occurred leaving the husband with visible injuries and Ms Alexander with none.
Again, from the court files:
“When police contacted Alexander about the incident, she first said she didn’t know what they were talking about, and she hadn’t been at the house, but later she stated that Gray attacked her because she wouldn’t stay with him overnight. Alexander never called police and later stated she was scared. According to police reports, Alexander had no injuries, but Gray had a bloody swollen eye and told police Alexander had punched him.”
Fear for your life enough to fire a warning shot at someone…then, against court order go to his – not hers, not theirs, but his separate residence – a few days later? Get charged with assaulting him again? THAT, ll, is what is faced in defending Marissa Alexander.
Inconvenient truths omitted in asking for support for Ms Alexander is manipulative. And the opposition knows this. Are we really helping her and abuse victims by bullshitting ourselves and others with these campaigns omitting key facts the court WILL weigh against her?
That’s unreal and it shows regardless of what they put out there regarding race not being a issue anymore is hilarious. This George Zimmerman guys is probably laughing his pants off right now. She fired a warning shot in the air yet this cat took a life. Not understanding what this world has come to. SMH We will continue to keep Marissa Alexander in our prayers because Lord knows that she needs it.
This story needs to be posted on Facebook,need to get the Judge
email address or physical office address and send him letters to free
her on bond!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is not JUSTICE, she has already served 3 yrs. Marissa has been granted a new trail, which means INNOCENT until proven GUILTY she should be released on her own recognise.
It would be nice to get the link correct to her donation website. My question is this- what was the charge? How could she possibly get 20 years for shooting a gun towards the ceiling? Why is the Obama administration allowing this? Such a sad, sad state of affairs in this country. Satan has come out of the closet, and his spirit is ubiquitous. Where is God right now? Is he still in America? This makes a mockery of justice, while she sits in a cell and Zimmerman walks around free. What can you possibly tell your children, or foreigners?
WE ALL NEED TO READ THIS AND PASS IT ALONG THIS IS REALLY NOT RIGHT! I WILL HELP IN ANYWAY I CAN
Thank you for bringing to our attention the link was not working!
Donations can be made at http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/justice-for-marissa-a-fundraiser-for-freedom
Yes sadly, it appears very unfair.
Please feel free to share with your friends via Facebook. Supporters have launched a Facebook page http://www.Facebook.com/freemarissaalexander
Very good points Kevin.
Thank you for sharing a different perspective.
That is the question on everyone’s mind.
The fundraising link doesn’t work.
Please stop this travesty of justice!
It is heartbreaking….