For Firing a Warning Shot, Florida Mother Faces Twenty Years in Prison | The Nation

In 2010, Marissa Alexander, a mother of three, tried to keep her abusive husband away from her. She fired a warning shot—into the kitchen ceiling. No one was hurt, but she now faces up to twenty years in prison.

“If a survivor of domestic violence uses a gun to warn an attacker, not kill him, and that survivor now faces a prison term of twenty years, then what purpose does Stand Your Ground serve?” asks Melissa Harris-Perry on her show this Sunday. She gathers an expert panel, including a survivor of domestic violence, to discuss the controversial law and other legal double standards that apply to women, especially those in abusive relationships.

—Elizabeth Whitman