Few cases demonstrate the viciously racist and sexist character of the capitalist court system more clearly than the outrageous prosecution and sentencing of Marissa Alexander, a Black woman from Jacksonville, Florida. She is currently serving a 20 year prison sentence for firing a warning shot to protect herself from her abusive ex-partner.
Marissa had been trapped in a relationship with her ex-partner Rico Gray, who she had a child with just nine days before the incident that led to her unjust imprisonment. Gray beat Marissa regularly, including while she was pregnant, and has a history of physically abusing other women as well.
On August 1, 2010 Gray saw that Marissa had been exchanging text messages with her ex-husband and became enraged, threatening to kill her. Alexander ran to the garage in an attempt to escape, but forgot her keys. When she realized she had to go back inside, she brought a handgun she kept in her car as a holder of a concealed carry permit. Gray continued to threaten her life as he held a knife, and in a clear case of measured self-defense Marissa fired one warning shot into the ceiling.
Angela Corey, the same District Attorney who oversaw the botched prosecution of George Zimmerman after she initially refused to even press charges, had Marissa arrested and tried for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. She refused to be intimidated by the so-called justice system and rejected a plea bargain—one of the main tools used by prosecutors across the country to maintain the monstrous apparatus of mass incarceration.
Basing their prosecution on the obviously concocted story of Marissa’s abuser, the DA’s office aggressively pursued the case. After just 12 minutes of deliberation, the jury returned with a guilty verdict and the judge handed down the mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years. She was ripped away from her three children and sent to prison.
Marissa Alexander’s case has returned to the headlines in recent days with the outrageous acquittal of George Zimmerman for the racist murder of Trayvon Martin. The very different outcomes of these two trials show the blatantly discriminatory nature of the whole “justice” system.
Zimmerman, who lived in a wealthy, gated community and was treated as a white man by the entire political apparatus of U.S. capitalism, murdered an unarmed Black teenager and received no punishment whatsoever. Alexander, a Black woman, heroically defended herself from her abuser without hurting anyone and was given decades in prison. Zimmerman, who got out of his car and stalked Trayvon, had the option of invoking Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law while the judge in Alexander’s case refused to allow her to do so.
The inherent racism of the court system under capitalism was on full display with DA Corey’s aggressive prosecution. The legal system also proved yet again its extreme sexist character by taking Gray’s story as undoubtable truth while dismissing Marissa’s testimony, an experience tragically common among women who are the victims of domestic violence.
Marissa Alexander is also dealing with Florida’s “10-20-Life” law. Coming into effect in 1999, the law established a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison for showing a gun while committing felonies listed in the legislation, 20 years for firing a gun and 25 years to life for shooting and wounding someone. Mandatory minimum laws are another key component of mass incarceration with clear racist implications. Upon learning about Marissa’s case, Victor Crist, the state legislator who drafted the 10-20-Life law, lamented that his legislation was intended to target “the thug who was robbing a liquor store.”
The acquittal of George Zimmerman makes it clear that the entire racist capitalist system must go—not through piecemeal reform but in sweeping revolution. Marissa Alexander —who defended herself from her aggressor and refused to be intimidated into falsely confessing her guilt for a plea bargain—is a model practitioner of the fighting spirit poor and working people need to win freedom. The growing movement demanding her release from prison is an important part of the overall struggle to smash racism and sexism and build a just world.
