Civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson traveled to Jacksonville, Florida to seek justice for another self-defense case following the disappointing verdict of the George Zimmerman trial.
Jackson spoke at the NAACP national convention in Orlando, Florida Wednesday morning, proclaiming his disappointment with the justice system after George Zimmerman was given a not guilty verdict Saturday.
He also took stabs at Florida’s “stand your ground” self-defense law, saying it makes life more dangerous for everyone. The law states that a person may justifiably use force in self-defense when there is reasonable belief of an unlawful threat, without an obligation to retreat first. This law was a clear deciding factor in the outcome of the case.
According to LA Times, Jackson thinks the jury chosen for the case, six women, five of them white, was extremely biased and the reason for the final decision to let Zimmerman walk free.
“The jury was not representative,” Jackson said. “Now they are showing their own cultural biases”
Jackson also complains of police brutality and prejudiced trials against African Americans in the country, saying he is investigating into other cases that were extremely unfair to African Americans.
One of these cases is that of Marissa Alexander, a 32-year-old African American woman who many believe was unjustly sentenced. Chicago Tribune reports that Jackson visited her in jail and is coming to her defense by trying to get her released.
Alexander was sentenced to 20 years in prison because she fired a gunshot against a wall during a violent argument with her abusive husband whom she had a restraining order against at the time.
She had a concealed weapons permit and purposely did not hit anyone with the shot, but Angela Corey, the same prosecutor in the Zimmerman case, charged her with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon because her husband’s two children were in the house during the incident.
The “stand your ground” law was a large motive behind this charge, but Alexander’s case was largely unpublicized, unlike the Zimmerman trial. These are the types of cases that Jackson is trying to bring attention too.
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