Laws are too late

In early summer, just after the conviction of George Zimmerman following the shooting of Trayvon Martin, another case out of Florida had people up in arms.

Marissa Alexander was convicted and sentenced to 20 years behind bars after firing a warning shot at her abusive husband — just on the heels of Zimmerman’s release.

Essentially, a white man walked free while a black woman did not.

Clearly, things weren’t adding up in Florida.

Unfortunately, since there was nothing I could do except experience a bout of righteous anger, I put Alexander’s case on the back burner until last week, when I received an email from a petition to free her.

Before I did anything, I decided to do some research, and while I can say that her sentencing is excessive, the conviction is in line with the law.

Which brings me to my real problem with the whole case — the law.

Marissa Alexander was an abused woman. The man she fired at, regardless of all the arguments about intention and gun ownership, hit her hard enough to send her to the hospital.

I highly doubt we can expect a person to stay calm in that situation.

There is a cultural lack of awareness when it comes to domestic abuse.

Alexander was convicted on the grounds that she wanted to kill her husband. Of course she wanted to kill her husband.

She shouldn’t have fired a gun at him, but she was not wholly to blame.

What they didn’t examine was her situation.

She did not have a place to go, and because abuse is so insidious and pervasive, I’m sure she could not recognize a large majority of the signs.

There is an astonishing lack of resources for women and other people in abusive households or relationships. The abused are trapped and the abusers have never been taught to do anything else.

Alexander’s case was a fantastic example of the lack of abuse prevention and subsequent victim blaming.

It’s the way the system is set up. Let’s punish the crime, not work to prevent it.
If we do not, we will wind up with women like Marissa Alexander, women who have been pushed past their limit. The cycle remains unbroken.

­— ewenning@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Emma Wenninger on Twitter @EmmaWenninger.