PARDON Abused Mother Marissa Alexander for Standing Her Ground

We, the undersigned, believe there is more than sufficient evidence to warrant granting Marissa Alexander a new trial. And, since her right to a defense under Florida's Stand Your Ground law has been denied, the governor should pardon her.

Whether she was acting under the Stand Your Ground Law or other laws, she had a right to protect herself from what she reasonably believed, and what documentation shows, appears to have been an obvious threat to her life or well-being. She did so without causing harm to anyone, and yet she's in jail, while police officers who claim they felt threatened have killed many people and never faced any penalty at all.

Given the details of the case revealed in the news media, her husband's record of violent abuse and the flimsy excuse provided from the courts for not accepting her appeal for the Stand Your Ground Defense, we believe that Marissa Alexander should not spend another day in jail.

The fact that this law has been successfully used as a defense for those who have in the past actually shot and killed another person, under much more questionable circumstances, makes the court’s response to Alexander’s appeal appear as a double standard application of Stand Your Ground Defense.

We see no reason for further argument on this matter. We request that, as long as this law remains on the books, the courts apply it fairly and without discrimination, and certainly in a case such as Alexander’s involving a history of domestic abuse.

We respectfully request that you pardon Marissa Alexander at once. Don't force her children to spend another day without their mother