Marissa Alexander begins new chapter; nation resonates with her story

Times-Union

Marissa Alexander begins new chapter; nation resonates with her story

By Larry Hannan

After years of trying to stay sane and positive, Marissa Alexander has finally started to exhale.

Alexander, 34, was an anonymous Jacksonville woman in August 2010 when she fired a shot in the direction of her estranged husband. From that moment, the specter or reality of being in jail has been a constant in her life.

That changed Jan. 27, when Alexander, now known nationwide after her case became a flash point in the debate over the Stand Your Ground and 10-20-Life laws, left the Duval County jail and began two years of house arrest.

“It’s a relief,” Alexander said in an hourlong interview with The Times-Union on Friday at her Northside home. “I can start making plans for the future.”

She walked out of jail into a world where she is now famous and is still coming to grips with the symbol that she has become to many people. Through the course of her case, Alexander saw people she had never met stand outside the Duval County Courthouse chanting “Free Marissa now.”

“I was in awe at their dedication, their solidarity, their support,” Alexander said. “The fact that they would dedicate their most precious resource, their time, to support me was heart-warming.”

GETTING HER LIFE BACK
Alexander also has started the hard work of reclaiming her life.

Her short-term goals are to go back to school — she’ll begin classes at the University of North Florida this spring — get a job and give her three children the stability that was lost while she was locked up. She has 14-year-old twins and a 4-year-old daughter.

“It was very difficult for them,” Alexander said about how the twins dealt with her absence. “I went away at a time when they were not quite teenagers.”

The security of knowing she’ll be around is new.

Three months ago, Alexander faced the possibility of going back to prison for 60 years if she was convicted of three counts of aggravated assault with a weapon for shooting in the direction of her estranged husband and his two children.

Prosecutors cut a deal with Alexander in November. She agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a three-year sentence. She had already been locked up for two years and 10 months, so Alexander got out 65 days later.

By pleading guilty, Alexander became a felon and lost the right to vote. She still has two years of house arrest in front of her: She can only leave her home to go to work, school and things such as doctor appointments and church.

“It was incredibly difficult to take that plea,” Alexander said. “But I thought about my kids; it was mainly the children that made me decide to do it.”

Alexander had already been convicted of the same charges in 2012 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. That conviction was overturned on appeal because the judge made a mistake during jury instructions.

NO ANIMOSITY
Alexander’s account is that her abusive husband, Rico Gray, beat her after they had an argument and she went into the garage to get away. She realized she had left the keys to her car in the house, so she got her gun out of the glove compartment and went back inside.

She said Gray charged at her and threatened violence. She said she fired a “warning shot” to scare him away.

Gray denied abusing Alexander and said she shot at him in anger after he insulted her former husband. Prosecutors insisted it wasn’t a warning shot because it hit the wall behind Gray and not the ceiling. Prosecutors and Gray also said his children were next to him when Alexander fired. She said they were in another room.

While Alexander was willing to talk about most aspects of her life, she declined to discuss that day or her current thoughts about the man she is now in the process of divorcing.

“We have a child together,” she said, referring to 4-year-old Rihanna. “I don’t want to criticize my daughter’s father.”

Alexander also declined to elaborate on her current relationship with Lincoln Alexander, her first husband whom she now lives with.

“We are good friends and I’m the mother to his kids,” Alexander said. “If the situation were reversed, I’d be there for him, too.”

The decision by State Attorney Angela Corey to seek a long prison sentence for Alexander was strongly criticized by many who supported Alexander along with people who were critical of the state’s minimum-mandatory sentencing laws. But Alexander said she had no personal animosity toward Corey or the prosecutors who worked under her.

“Angela Corey had a job to do, I respect that,” Alexander said. “I try not to make it personal.”

OBSCURITY TO HEROINE
No one paid attention when Alexander went on trial the first time. But after she was convicted, her case generated intense media attention because of the George Zimmerman murder trial in Sanford.

After Zimmerman was acquitted of the murder of Trayvon Martin, people started pointing to Alexander’s case as a miscarriage of justice, saying it wasn’t fair she faced 20 years while Zimmerman went free.

“I believe that Marissa Alexander’s case resonated so strongly because it was perceived by many people, especially African-Americans, as a true miscarriage of justice,” said Marcella Washington, a professor of politics at Florida State College at Jacksonville.

Although she had no criminal record and no one was hurt when the shot was fired, Alexander initially faced 20 years in prison — actually 60 years because it was three counts.

“Nothing could be more unjust than that,” Washington said.

University of North Florida associate sociology professor JeffriAnne Wilder, whose work focuses on diversity, race relations and gender issues, said people identified with Alexander because she is a mother and a victim of domestic abuse who was fighting back against the abuse.

“Many people can resonate with her story because she appeared to be getting such a raw deal with the possible sentence of 60 years,” Wilder said. “Her story is a perfect exemplification of blaming the victim.”

Alexander also became a poster child for critics of Florida’s legal system and laws. The Stand Your Ground law says people can use deadly force and do not have to retreat if they think it is necessary to prevent great bodily harm. The 10-20-Life law requires that anyone convicted of a crime where he or she fires a gun get at least 20 years in prison.

Alexander unsuccessfully claimed Stand Your Ground protection before her first trial, which ended in a conviction, and was sentenced to 20 years, even though Circuit Judge James Daniel said he disagreed with what he was required to impose.

Alexander said she realized the impact her case was having during her sentencing hearing. After having an empty courtroom during her trial in March 2012, she walked into a packed courtroom of media and others who had taken an interest in the case for the May sentencing hearing.

“It was surreal,” said Alexander, who was in the Duval County jail between the verdict and sentence. “Kind of like having an out-of-body experience.”

COPING AND MOVING ON
While people began marching and demonstrating on her behalf, Alexander was off to the Lowell Correctional Institution in Marion County, where she remained until her conviction was overturned.

“It’s exactly what it’s meant to be,” Alexander said of her time in state prison. “You have to live by somebody else’s rules, and you’re never alone.”

Alexander said being away from her children — Rihanna was an infant when she was first arrested — was the hardest part.

“Not knowing where your baby girl is, not knowing who’s watching her, was the worst,” she said.

Alexander coped by thinking about the future. “I tried to keep the focus on what was in front of me,” she said.

Now that she’s out, Alexander is faced with what to do with the rest of her life. Her new freedom comes with a new career. Despite having a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Phoenix, Alexander is going back to school with a plan to become a paralegal.

While in prison, she tried to help other inmates with legal and financial issues.

“I became pretty passionate about the legal stuff,” Alexander said.

“I really found a purpose.”

She wants to help young people caught up in the juvenile justice system turn their lives around for the better.

At some point, Alexander plans to use her newfound fame to bring attention to issues she cares about.

But that won’t happen right now.

“Everything has a time and a season,” she said.

“It’s not the time for me now to become a public figure.”

Larry Hannan: (904) 359-4470