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Common Dreams reports
Reviled Florida State Attorney Angela Corey lost her reelection bid on [August 30], prompting widespread celebration as the woman The Nation once suggested was "the cruelest prosecutor in America" was ousted.
"Corey's loss is an encouraging sign that the public will no longer tolerate overzealous and unprincipled criminal prosecutions, including women and children", University of Miami law professor Mary Anne Franks said in a statement.
Corey, whose eight-year tenure in Florida's Fourth Judicial Circuit Court saw her charge 77 children as adults in 2016 alone and sentence more people to death than any other Florida prosecutor, gained widespread notoriety for her inadequate prosecution of Trayvon Martin's killer, George Zimmerman, and for seeking a 60-year sentence for Marissa Alexander, a domestic violence survivor with three children, for firing a warning shot in the direction of her abusive husband. (Alexander spent three years in prison.)
[...] Corey was defeated by unknown opponent and corporate lawyer Melissa Nelson, who will now face off with write-in candidate Kenny Leigh in the general election--although Jacksonville media noted that no write-in candidate has ever been elected to the state attorney position in Florida, and that Leigh has yet to make a single campaign appearance.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Spook brat on Friday September 02 2016, @06:06PM
Marissa did commit a crime, and it should be a crime. You aren't allowed to fire a warning shot. Life isn't a movie, she's not serving in the Coast Guard or Air Force, and so it just isn't OK to be firing bullets in randomish directions in a populated area. Somebody could get hit. If we allowed this, everybody would be using it as an excuse. A scary-looking person walks toward your house, so you fire a warning shot! Even Florida isn't going to allow that.
Right, so here's what she should have done:
(1) keep the firearm put away unless she intends to kill her husband
(2) having drawn the firearm, aim center of mass and fire until the threat has stopped
(3) call police to report the incident
(4) When the police arrive have her hands empty so they don't shoot her too
(5) explain to police that she feared for her life and shot in self defense
Ironically, this course of action would likely have resulted in no prosecution at all, despite someone actually dieing. Or, perhaps this is normal, and it's ironic that firing a warning shot can get you threatened with 60 years jail for reckless endangerment despite no one dieing at all. I'm pretty sure that was the point the submitter was trying to make when calling Corey the "cruelest prosecutor".
Snark aside, I'm quite serious about point (1) above: don't involve a weapon unless you actually have lethal intent. Shoot to kill or don't draw, there is no "wing" or "warning". Any application of lethal force in a less-than-lethal manner is misuse and/or torture, and there's no place for it in U.S. law.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 02 2016, @07:13PM
Yes. IANAL but I believe the legal term is "brandishing". It is illegal. If you pull out a weapon you better be prepared to use it. If you are ever in a situation where a cop asks you whether you intended to shoot someone with that weapon the correct response is "yes, I was prepared to shoot if I had to." Any other response is likely to get you charged with a felony.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Saturday September 03 2016, @11:34AM
Snark aside, I'm quite serious about point (1) above: don't involve a weapon unless you actually have lethal intent. Shoot to kill or don't draw, there is no "wing" or "warning". Any application of lethal force in a less-than-lethal manner is misuse and/or torture, and there's no place for it in U.S. law.
Your points are valid from a strictly legal perspective, but I suspect for a lot of people actually shooting to kill someone involves a lot of moral complications for them. Using that reasoning, frightening someone off is a far better outcome, they themselves are safe and they have not hurt anyone. That said, maybe her lawyer should have told her to say she missed, but I suppose the cops got her story before she ever talked to a lawyer.