Every day three women in the U.S. are murdered by their domestic partners. But after Marissa Alexander fired a single warning shot as her estranged husband threatened to kill her, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Eventually, Alexander survived both domestic violence and imprisonment, and in so doing, brought national attention to the criminalization of survivors. Her message to each of us is clear: Ending the cycle of domestic violence should not mean having to choose between life and death, or freedom and prison. Marissa Alexander is a speaker, success coach, and survivor defendant consultant. Her case remains among the most widely cited examples of the injustice of mandatory minimum laws and the criminalization of domestic violence survivors. Alexander has appeared on CNN and MSNBC and was profiled in The New York Times and Rolling Stone. She is currently writing her first book. Alexander holds a bachelor’s degree in business and a master’s degree in business administration. To learn more, visit www.marissaalexander.org This talk was given at a 2019 TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
*I’ve seen too many women and victims be battered by some knuckle dragging, neanderthal, out of control SASQUATCH that law enforcement KEEP saying they can’t do anything about!??? And you have to wait for him to go at you – AGAIN, before YOU can do anything about it. Marissa’s husband was NEVER SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS for ALL the beatings he’d given her. And SHE gets sentenced for firing a warning shot in the air – in “Stand Your Ground Florida”? This was to emphasize that Stand Your Ground laws were to cover for White paranoia against Black people. Black people could be killed for somebody’s PERCEPTION of bodily harm. But a Black person – definitely facing bodily harm – doesn’t have the right to use even “threat” of force. This is a travesty throughout.
Thank you, Janet Garnett! You nailed it. My hope is that the “stand your ground” law, apparently used against Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, goes all the way to the Supreme Court and is overturned in all states.