The Rude Pundit: All You Need to Know About Irrational "Self-Defense" Laws in Three Pictures

[meegbear]

That's Ezekiel Gilbert. He was acquitted yesterday in the murder of Lenora Ivie Frago, who had taken $150 from Gilbert for sex and then refused to have sex with him or give him the money back. So he shot her, not wanting to kill her (and it did take her a few months to die). But because Texas allows people to use deadly force in order to retrieve stolen property (and because the sex did not occur, despite prostitution being illegal, the money was considered stolen), Gilbert, for lack of a better phrase, got off.



That's Ralph Wald. He was acquitted last week for the murder of Walter Conley. Conley had been in the middle of having sex with Wald's wife, so, like any reasonable person, Wald claimed that he assumed his wife was being raped and shot Conley dead. His defense was Florida's Stand Your Ground law, which allows anyone who believes that he or she is facing danger in his or her home to use deadly force. Wald said his wife was in danger, so he shot first and asked questions later. Oh, wait, actually he didn't do that last part. He told police he was glad the guy was dead.



That's Marissa Alexander. Last year, in Jacksonville, Florida, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing a shot in the air to warn her husband, Rico Gray, to back off her. He had been arrested previously for domestic violence against her, beating her when she was pregnant, and on that day in 2010, he "approached her in a rage" when Alexander drove up to their house to get clothes. She was trying to move out and get away from Gray. Before she fired the shot, he had chased her through the house, broken down a door to get at her, and cornered her in the garage. The judge said she should have fled instead of firing twice into the air. At trial, her Stand Your Ground defense was rejected because the jury did not believe she faced imminent danger. She was convicted of aggravated assault and given the mandatory sentence. She is still in prison.

Look at the pictures. Here's your homework assignment. See if you can figure it out: What is different about Alexander?

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/

[The Magistrate]

1. Cold But Fair, Sir

[uponit7771]

2. Yeap, 2nd Amendment and it's "protections" are for whites mostly there's NO DOUBT about it and

...there are enough examples for those who WANT to see them

[wandy]

7. Closer than you might think..........

In Georgia, for example, a generation before the American Revolution, laws were passed in 1755 and 1757 that required all plantation owners or their male white employees to be members of the Georgia Militia, and for those armed militia members to make monthly inspections of the quarters of all slaves in the state. The law defined which counties had which armed militias and even required armed militia members to keep a keen eye out for slaves who may be planning uprisings.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/13890-the-second-amendment-was-ratified-to-preserve-slavery

Think of it as you will.

[tk2kewl]

10. white men

nt

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. brown eyes? the other two have blue eyes.

Earrings? No, Gilbert wears one on his right ear.

[backscatter712]

4. What about those of us with Stephen Colbert's disability? n/t

[Jenoch]

5. A former Florida state legislaor

has said the 10-20-life law under which Marissa Alexander was sentenced was not enacted for situations like hers. It was intended for a crime such as using a gun and firing it while robbing a liquor store.

The reason she was convicted is because she went to her estraged husband's home, argued with him, left the home to get her gun, and went back into the house.

She fired the gun, but not 'into the air'. The bullet hit a wall in the house. Her husband claimed she aimed the gun at him and his children. Just as Zimmerman put himself into his situation, she did the same. The jury did not believe her version of the events.

[NaturalHigh]

15. Gee...the OP kind of left that out.

[loli phabay]

16. kind of important pieces of info

[NickB79]

6. Self-deleted

I see there was more to Alexander's case than the OP stated.

[rhett o rick]

8. Well, she sure has a nicer smile. nm

[Scuba]

9. Thanks for the post.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

11. "Stand your ground" is a "White Only Law".

[RainDog]

12. k&r n/t

[jorno67]

13. The white guys are in court and she is trying to drive away?

[ewagner]

14. Well said, Mr Rude one...n/t

[ieoeja]

17. Hate to say this, but I have turned more than one pro-Gun suburbanite with one simple statement.

"Half a million Black men within 35 miles of here would love to carry a gun legally too."

Sadly, that is often all it takes to flip a pro-Gun suburbanite to anti-Gun.


Here's an incident from a few years back. White man in northern suburb of Chicago shot and killed a home intruder. Hailed by all and sundry as a hero. NRA saw their chance to finally liberalize gun laws in Illinois. For two weeks this was the lead story.

Then a Black man on the south side killed a home intruder. "Probably a drug deal gone wrong," said everyone in the media, around the water cooler, and sitting at the bar. NRA packed up their bags and went home.

One good thing came out of this story. In both instances the police investigated the shooting. And in both instances it was deemed a legitimate use of self defense. So at least under the law they were both treated the same.

But even that, I think I can safely predict, would too often not be true.


For that matter how could a Black man carry a gun legally in a city where three Black people are killed over the course of a few months because the police were afraid their cell phones were guns? A Black man actually carrying a gun would be a free kill for the cops. No excuse necessary. The gun alone would be their excuse.

[Skeeter Barnes]

18. Warning shots are willful reckless discharge.

You should only pull the trigger to defend yourself, not to "warn" people by shooting at a wall or in the air. Aim at the attacker and shoot if you are in grave danger or don't shoot at all if you are not in grave danger. You don't get to use gunfire to herd people around where you want them to go or to get them to do what you want them to do, no matter how bad they may have treated you.

People see the "good guys" use this tactic in the movies so they think it's a good idea but you could be acquitted if you killed someone in self defense and still go to prison for the warning shots, if you fired any.

She's lucky neither of the two shots she sent into the wall ricocheted into the kids.

[NaturalHigh]

19. I remember cringing at the scene in "Justified"...

where Deputy Givens fired a warning shot into the ceiling of a bar. Yeah, it's not a good idea in the real world. You can kill someone accidentally and be legitimately convicted of murder.