Stand Your Ground is an Outrage

On May 11th, 2012, Melissa Alexander, a 31year old mother of 3, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for shooting a warning shot in her home, to ward off further attack from her 9 day old child's father. Her attacker, who was under an order of protection to stay away from Ms. Alexander, had just choked her., and threatened that if he could not have her, no one could. These are the famous last words of many a murderer, and Ms. Alexander fled for her life. She ran to the garage to leave, but the garage door was stuck and unable to exit that way, she returned to her home with her gun in her hand. Finding her attacker standing with her two young sons in the room, she shot, once in the air, hitting no one, to let her attacker know she meant business. Melissa Alexander was charged with 3 counts of Aggravated Assualt, that in Florida, carry a mandatory sentence of 10-20 years in prison, if convicted. The jury decided that because she had left the room, Stand Your Ground did not apply in Ms. Alexander's case. So now, she is in prison, serving 20 years for trying to protect herself from an admitted abuser, who testified that he had abused Ms. Alexander and all of the women with whom he'd been involved. Police had previously been called to this home when Ms. Alexander was being abused by the man she is now in prison for protecting herself against. Stand Your Ground is an excuse to kill, but in this case no one died. How can justice be served when a 31 year old professional woman with an infant and 2 small boys goes to prison for hurting no one in Florida, and another person can kill an unarmed teen just walking home, and that man gets a $15,000 bond and is allowed to return to his family while he awaits trial? Ms. Alexander's case is a travesty, and a gross injustice that all right-minded Americans should find objectionable.