Marissa Alexander prosecutor risks 'bully' image in 'errands' arrest
OPINION - Angela Corey clearly cares deeply about this case. But many people see Alexander as a victim of domestic violence, who tried to fight back, in a state where gun culture is king, but pro-gun laws are applied unevenly..
One group of Alexander’s supporters sent out a press release before today’s hearing, calling Corey’s motion “inflammatory and misleading,” and a “wasteful, frivolous cost to the state and is further evidence of Corey’s abusive and baseless pursuit of Marissa Alexander.”
“The state’s motion is nothing more than a smear tactic to undermine Alexander’s credibility and criminalize her character in an attempt to sway public opinion before Alexander’s new trial at the end of March,” the press release from the Free Marissa Now Mobilization Campaign continued.
Indeed, it’s difficult to view the state’s push to have Alexander thrown back into jail for running a few errands as a dispassionate pursuit of justice. Getting a new driver’s license, dropping a family member off at the hair salon or buying some new clothing after more than two years behind bars don’t seem like some brazen display of contempt for the law. These events sound like a woman trying to reconstruct small pieces of a life that few who’ve examined this case – including the admitted abuser who was the “victim” of Ms. Alexander’s ill-advised warning shot, and whose attorney has said he would be “shocked and disappointed” if the case didn’t end in a plea deal – believes truly warranted 20 years deducted from it in prison.
Ms. Corey clearly cares deeply about this case. But many people see Alexander as a victim of domestic violence, who tried to fight back, in a state where gun culture is king, but pro-gun laws are applied unevenly.
That’s why Attorney Corey’s zeal is so confounding.
She once offered Alexander a plea deal amounting to three years in prison (which Alexander and her then-attorney turned down) so at one time she took the position that Alexander was not someone who should be put away for decades. Legal experts say the state probably has a good chance of winning a second trial, since statistically, Florida’s Stand Your Ground law seems to be much kinder to defendants who pull the trigger and kill the person they’re firing at, than it is to people whose victims survive.
But Ms. Corey cannot truly believe that a majority of people will come to side with Rico Gray, Alexander’s soon-to-be ex-husband, who admitted in a sworn deposition: “I got five baby mamas and I put my hand on every last one of them except one. The way I was with women, they was like they had to walk on eggshells around me. You know, they never knew what I was thinking…or what I might do…hit them, push them” — and view Ms. Alexander as a villain. Surely she doesn’t think a majority of people believe Alexander deserves to spend much of her adult life behind bars, even if a second jury does.
But what Angela Corey, who after all, represents not just the court, but the people of Florida, risks doing with her relentless pursuit of Marissa Alexander is compounding the tragedy of a case that’s already dripping with tragedy; for the young children involved, for two families, and for Ms. Alexander. She also risks destroying the public perception that justice, rather than retribution, is what she’s really after while making herself look like, well, a bully.
Follow Joy Reid on Twitter at @thereidreport.
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