Accused of overcharging, Florida State Attorney Angela Corey defends decisions in Zimmerman, Alexander cases

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Was Marissa Alexander overcharged?

Marissa Alexander, 31, has said that she was attempting to get away from her husband, Rico Gray, on July 31, 2010 when an altercation occurred. Gray had been convicted for domestic violence, and Alexander had a restraining order issued against him at the time of the incident. After a conflict erupted in their home, Alexander said she was getting in her car when she realized she had forgotten her keys, and had to go back in the house to get them — but there was a gun in her glove compartment. Fearing for her safety, with gun in hand, she returned to get her keys, when she says Gray threatened to kill her.

Alexander said she fired a single shot into the wall as a warning, missing Gray and his two sons. No one was hurt, but Alexander was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

It took a jury of six 12 minutes to find Alexander guilty. She attempted to invoke Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, but the presiding judge, James Daniel, threw the defense out. Daniel said in court that he had no option but to give Alexander a 20-year jail sentence.

“Under the state’s 10-20-life law, a conviction for aggravated assault where a firearm has been discharged carries a minimum and maximum sentence of 20 years without regarding to any extenuating or mitigating circumstances that may be present, such as those in this case,” he said.

RELATED: From behind bars, Marissa Alexander awaits appeal, yearns for an emotional bond with daughter

State Attorney Corey offered a deal

State Attorney Corey offered Alexander a three-year sentence without the possibility of probation in return for a guilty plea. Corey’s office confirmed to theGrio that this plea deal remained an option for Alexander’s defense team throughout the trial, but the mother of three refused it.

Still, Jahra McLawrence, a former Florida public defender now working in the private sector, believes Alexander was overcharged by Corey’s office. He also believes the charge of second-degree murder was inappropriate in the Zimmerman case, given the evidence presented.

“I am a former public defender who has always represented the rights of the accused,” McLawrence said. “Prosecutors do this crap all the time,” he said of overcharging to force a plea.

“Not only do prosecutors use overcharged offenses to force pleas, they will also use a second offense as leverage to force someone to plea to something they know they cannot prove.”

Many others, including Florida Representative Corrine Brown (D-FL), have called Corey overzealous in her prosecution of Alexander. “She was overcharged by the prosecutor. Period,” Brown has stated. “She never should have been charged.”

Many, like Brown, believe the Stand Your Ground law should have protected Alexander from being charged and convicted, because that statute informed the decision made by police to release Zimmerman the night Martin was killed, and informed the language of the jury’s deliberation instructions for his trial, instructions that were approved by attorneys for the prosecution and defense.

Alexander case: Complexities emerge

Corey said, however, that the Alexander case is far more complex than the public is aware.

“We have put out a lot of information about the truth about that case,” Corey said. “And it went through a full Stand Your Ground hearing and a full jury trial of her peers. One other thing: she shot at two young boys and their father. And he had to duck them out of the way and run for their lives, so that was an appropriate charge, aggravated assault. An overcharge in that case would’ve been attempted murder, which we did not charge.”

Corey told theGrio that by the time she met with Alexander after the shooting, she had been released on bond and ordered to stay away from her husband. Not only did Alexander not stay away from Gray, but about four months later she was arrested again for assaulting him, blackening his eye. After pleading no contest, Alexander was sentenced to time served for this crime.

“[Officers] found her; she said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ and lied about it,” according to Corey. “I would be remiss in my duties to this community to put anyone on community control who had blatantly violated a judge’s order.”

Ultimately, despite her detractors, Corey stands by her decisions, even in cases that have placed her under the microscope.

“No matter where I go, people of all races, colors, everything, thank us for the job we’re doing here,” she said. “The disconnect is on the part of people who don’t want to believe the truth.  The disconnect is not on our part.  We try our cases in court for a reason and that’s because that’s where the truth can come out.”

Follow Donovan X. Ramsey at @iDXR