Marissa Alexander Released!
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Stop the legal lynching by Florida's mandatory
minimum sentencing laws of an African American domestic violence survivor
As battered women often discover, the system that should protect them is frequently their worst enemy. Marissa Alexander, a 31-year-old African American mother of three living in Jacksonville, Florida, tried to follow the rules. She had a restraining order against her estranged husband, who had a record of abuse toward Alexander and other women. She had a legally licensed gun and had never been arrested. In August 2010, only nine days after having given birth, Alexander fired a warning shot into the wall of her house when her husband threatened her life. For this, a Florida jury convicted her of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after only 12 minutes of deliberation. On May 11, 2012, a judge rejected Alexander's "stand-your-ground defense" and sentenced her to 20 years under Florida's mandatory minimum sentencing rules. Stand-your-ground laws permit a person to use force in self-defense if they believe they are in serious threat of harm. According to a number of studies, African American women suffer higher levels of domestic abuse than any other ethnic group, most likely as a result of the stresses of poverty and discrimination. Black women are murdered by their partners at a rate three times that of white women. Jobless or low-paid, with a well-earned distrust of the criminal justice system, and a history of discrimination from health and social service institutions, abused women of color often have few resources to draw upon. 
Rainier Valley Heritage Parade, 8/18/12 Women of all races who fight back against abuse find little sympathy from police, courts, or media. In states where police are mandated to make an arrest in domestic violence situations, arrests of women have risen dramatically. Women are now nearly 20% of domestic violence arrests although men are acknowledged to commit 95% of the abuse. Black feminist Sharon Allard has observed that the Battered Woman Syndrome defense, which has been successfully used in court to justify why a woman killed or took action against an abuser, is often denied to Black women. Why? Because the stereotype of Black women as "domineering, assertive, hostile and immoral" hinders a judge's or juror's ability to believe that a Black woman acted in self-defense. According to Allard, Black women are twice as likely as white women to be convicted for murdering abusive husbands. The racist and sexist double standard exists at every level of U.S. society. It took a national outcry for the killer of African American teenager Trayvon Martin to be arrested after he invoked Florida's "stand-your-ground" law. Meanwhile, Congress is balking at reauthorizing the federal Violence Against Women Act, in part because the act contains new provisions that would help protect queers, Native Americans and immigrants. Radical Women demands the immediate release and pardon of Marissa Alexander, passage of a strengthened Violence Against Women Act, and an end to race and sex discrimination in the criminal justice system, including an end to mandatory minimum sentencing. In addition, Radical Women calls for massive increases in funding for jobs, aid to families, and shelters and services for everyone fleeing domestic violence regardless of their sexual orientation or immigration status. -- National Radical Women, June 5, 2012 
Seattle Radical Women meeting, 8/2/12 |
Resources Marissa Alexander free from house arrest -- 1/27/17 Marissa Alexander released! Marissa's 1/27/15 statement to supporters and press (video) History of the Free Marissa Now campaign Free Marissa Now & Stand with Nan-Hui, interview in Truth-Out RW statement for Standing Our Ground Week Interview on SyndicatedNews.Net (with Free Marissa Now song by Danielle Kerley/Heart of Orion) Article in The Grio/MSNBC Marissa Alexander is Free but Not Yet in the Clear Free Marissa Now statement on Marissa Alexander's release on bond RW column: "Growing campaign to free Marissa Alexander" Radical Women demands justice for Marissa Alexander Free Marissa Now statement on mandatory minimum sentencing Free Marissa Now statement on Zimmerman verdict Factsheet on the case Websites National Free Marissa Now mobilization campaign website Updates/discussion from the national campaign (Facebook) Website and donation links - managed by Marissa's family www.justice4marissa.com Updates and information from the Seattle-based committee www.facebook.com/PacificNorthwestAllianceToFreeMarissaAlexander Write to Marissa Alexander Marissa Alexander P. O. Box 23872 Jacksonville, FL 32257 SELECTED ENDORSERS For full list see www.FreeMarissaNow.org ORGANIZATIONS More than 50 state, county and local agencies and organizations working to stop sexual violence and abuse, plus the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the National Network to End Domestic Violence African-American/Black Women's Cultural Alliance Asian Women's Shelter Black Alliance for Just Immigration Black Skeptics Los Angeles Black Women for Wellness Black Women's Blueprint California Coalition for Women Prisoners A Call to Men Chicago Alliance to Free Marissa Alexander Committee Against Police Brutality Comunidad Liberación/Liberation Community Critical Resistance DreamActivist End Stand Your Ground Equal Action Families Against Mandatory Minimums Fearless Leading by the Youth (FLY) Florida New Majority Freedom Socialist Party Gender Justice LA Girls for Gender Equity Green Party of Seattle Idle No More, Minneapolis/St. Paul INCITE! Indigenous Social Justice Association - Melbourne, Australia Justice for Trayvon Martin Los Angeles LAGAI – Queer Insurrection Miami Law Human Rights Clinic MoveOn.org (Atlanta Council) NAACP Carson/Torrance Branch National Conference of Black Lawyers National Congress of Black Women National Lawyers Guild New Jim Crow Movement New Voices Pittsburgh: Women of Color for Reproductive Justice Northwest Network of LGBT Survivors of Abuse www.nwnetwork.org Northwest Oregon Labor Council NOW-NJ (National Organization for Women-New Jersey) Organized Workers for Labor Solidarity (OWLS) Organizing for Action - Florida Pacific NW Alliance to Free Marissa Alexander People's Organization for Progress Power U Center for Social Change PROJECT R.E.A.C.H. INC. Project South Radical Women Renewed Life Ministry San Francisco Women Against Rape Seattle Women In Black Sisters Inside Inc Southern Freedom Movement Toronto Activists for Social Change UFCW Local 555, Oregon UniteWomen.org Voice of the Ex-Offender WISH (Washington Incarceration Stops Here) Women of Color Network Women's Health & Justice Initiative Women in Prison Defense Committee - Pittsburgh Women With A Vision, Inc. INDIVIDUALS Affiliation listed for identification only William C. Anderson, ColorofChange.org Amina Baraka, community activist/poet Amiri Baraka, Unity & Struggle Zillah Eisenstein, feminist scholar and writer Glen Ford, Executive editor, Black Agenda Report James E. Harris, New Jersey NAACP President Andy Johnson, radio host, former member FL House Glorious Johnson (Former City Council Member/Jacksonville, Florida) Mia Jones, Florida House of Representatives Zayid Muhammad, New Black Panther Party Suzanne Pharr, community organizer and strategist, political educator, trainer, speaker, and writer from Knoxville, TN Katha Pollitt, journalist for The Nation Beth E. Richie, author of Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America's Prison Nation Andrea Smith, UC Riverside, author of Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide Dean Spade, Assoc. Professor, Seattle University School of Law Vicky Stapleton, Executive Action VP of NOW-NJ; Women in NAACP Morris County Laura Whitehorn, former political prisoner James Wright, union activist and former SCLC Field Organizer Articles "To the woman who put Marissa Alexander in jail: Open letter by Melissa Harris-Perry," MSNBC "Growing campaign to free abuse survivor Marissa Alexander turns outrage into action," Freedom Socialist "Freeing Marissa Alexander," TruthOut "National Fight Continues for Retrial for Florida's Marissa Alexander," Amsterdam News "Unbelievable: Fla. 'Stand Your Ground' Defense Rejected for Mother Only Firing 'Warning Shot'," Afro Briefs "Fighting for Our Lives, Marissa Alexander & Stand Your Ground," Blog Radio by Black Women's Blueprint "I Fought the Law and the Law Won," Feministing "Marissa Alexander Sentenced: Florida Mom Who Shot At Abusive Husband Gets 20 Years In Prison, Huffington Post "Marissa Alexander's 20-years mandatory prison sentence, where's the damn community outrage?," Chocolate City "Martin Luther King III to hold March in Florida in protest of Marissa Alexander sentence," The Grio "No Justice When Women Fight Back," Truth-Out "Please, Governor, Clemency for Marissa Alexander," Sunshine State News "Survivor of domestic violence gets 20 years," Freedom Socialist "You call this justice? Not if it's the victim who goes to prison," Miami Herald "Where was Stand Your Ground for Marissa Alexander," Time: Ideas YouTube Video Clips |