Ms. Alexander was found guilty in May 2012 of discharging a deadly weapon near her estranged husband and newborn baby. She countered that she had long been abused by her husband and had fired the shot as a warning for him not to get any closer to her during what was becoming a physical altercation. He was not injured.

Under Florida law, people have no duty to retreat from danger before fighting back, even with deadly force. But a judge ruled that the stand-your-ground law didn’t apply in Alexander’s case. After a jury found her guilty, the judge sentenced her to 20 years in prison, citing Florida’s tough minimum sentencing laws, even though Alexander had never before been in trouble with the law.

SOURCE: Florida mom to get new trial: Did court detect a ‘stand your ground’ inequity? – CSMonitor.com.

I might be coming to a conclusion on not enough facts but this story seems to reek of racism to me.  A black person who simply discharged a gun near someone who is allegedly abusing her gets 20 years in prison even though no one was hurt and a person who shot and killed a kid who was simply walking in his neighborhood gets off free! I know there is a wide variety of so-called justice within the States but I can’t understand how these two events could happen under the same judicial system?

But then again the folks in Florida continue to confuse me.  If we are to believe the common knowledge Florida has a much higher population of senior citizens than most other State. I am one to believe that as we age we gain wisdom that we didn’t have in younger years. I know that is certainly true for me! But that doesn’t seem to be the case in this instance.

Florida just confuses me I guess. How can a State that is made up mostly of senior citizens be so careless in dishing out “justice” and where is the outcry if that is not so? Now Texas I can possibly understand in these modes. They have an inordinate amount of “shoot-from-the-hip” cowboys in that State who relish living in the 19th century. To them the only really important things are their guns and their particular version of God. They seem to have little compassion or understanding for anyone else. But Florida, at least demographically, is much different.  Could it be the polluting effects of the Bush boys being governors? 🙂

I guess now that I have  dissed both Florida and Texas in another post I better stop.  But as my hero Will Rogers says they are the ones giving me the material, I just report it with my version of spin…..