Join Helen Gilbert and I on Thursday August 1, 2013 from 8:00AM-9:00AM as we discuss Marissa Alexander’s conviction and the national effort to free her from prison. Free Marissa Now Mobilization Campaign Statement The Free Marissa Now Campaign is organizing to win freedom for Marissa Alexander, a proud African American mother of three with an MBA and a survivor of domestic violence. In August 2010, Marissa fired a single warning shot in the ceiling to halt her abusive partner during a life-threatening beating in her home. Marissa's husband, who has previously landed Marissa in the hospital after beating her, admitted in a sworn statement that he was the aggressor, threatened her life and was so enraged that he did not know what he would do. Despite the fact that Marissa caused no injuries, has no previous criminal record, that Florida’s self-defense law includes the right to Stand Your Ground, she was arrested by Jacksonville police, charged with aggravated assault, and sentenced to twenty years in the Florida criminal correctional system. We must take a stand against the criminalization of all survivors of domestic and sexual violence. Marissa’s case is one of many that shows us how Black women and other marginalized people are especially likely to be criminalized, prosecuted, and incarcerated while trying to navigate and survive the conditions of violence in their lives. Freeing Marissa is a social justice action against intimate partner and systemic violence against all women, and an urgent call for the end of mass incarceration and support for truly transformative solutions to violence. For more information on the Free Marissa Now Campaign go to the Facebook page at this link www.facebook.com/FreeMarissaNow?ref=br_tf Helen Gilbert is part of the leadership core of the Pacific Northwest Alliance to Free Marissa Alexander and the National Free Marissa Now Campaign. Ms. Gilbert is the Seattle Organizer for Radical women, a national, multi-racial socialist feminist organization that fights for women’s rights and social justice. Her Facebook link is www.facebook.com/PacificNorthwestAllianceToFreeMarissaAlexander
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