Unequal justice in Florida

The morning after the verdict, I'm still sorting through my thoughts and feelings about it.

Here's another way of looking at the crux of the way the case was handled:   The defense made the case about the last few minutes -- Who started the fighting?  Who was on top when the gun was fired?  Who was defending himself?

The prosecution was less successful in its aim to keeping the focus on the whole picture:   An innocent teenager walking along home from a store who winds up dead from a self-appointed cop-wannabe:  What was in his mind?  Racial prejudice?   Gun-toting machismo?  Cocky from the protection of Florida's Stand Your Ground laws?

That phase is over.   But behind this all there is racial inequality and injustice.  And unjust Florida laws.

Contrast these cases:  (1)  George Zimmerman kills unnecessarily and walks free.  (2) Marissa Alexander, mother of three small children, had obtained a restraining order against her abusive husband whom she has left.   Thinking him not home at their previous residence, she went to get the rest of her clothes.  He appeared, she felt threatened, and went to her car to get a gun she had a legal permit for, went back in and fired a warning shot at a wall.   No one was actually shot at;  no one was hurt.

But because of Florida's mandatory sentencing laws, when a gun is used in another crime, Alexander was found guilty of aggravated assault with the use of a gun and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Marissa Alexander used a gun just as a warning and for self-protection;  no one was shot.   But Marissa is African-American and she is in jail for 20 years.

George Zimmerman carried a gun to protect his property.  He shot and killed a black teenager who was unarmed.   But George Zimmerman is not black, and he went free.

Ralph