Last weekend, Melissa examined the case against Marissa Alexander, the Jacksonville mother of three who fired a single bullet into her kitchen ceiling two years ago to warn her husband, Rico Gray, against continuing his physical attack on her. Gray, who reacted in violent anger after discovering that Alexander texted pictures of their newborn child to her ex-husband,spoke out earlier this week in an interview with TheLoop21:

“Personally, I wish she would have taken the three years,” Gray said. “I don’t wish 20 years on no one.”

He’s referring to the plea deal that Alexander reportedly turned down, a deal that took into account Gray’s history of violence. Alexander presumably cast that deal aside because she genuinely believed that she was standing her ground — both figuratively, and legally. But Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” castle-doctrine law somehow didn’t apply to her, despite the fact that her case appears to fit the statute to a T.

She was convicted of three counts of aggravated assault in a matter of minutes — and today, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison, a sentence she will appeal…

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