Marissa Alexander will have a status hearing on whether charges will be dropped or move to a new trial

Marissa Alexander, the Florida woman who was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for shooting a warning shot against her abusive husband, will have a status hearing on October 31.

The hearing will indicate whether State Prosecutor Angela Corey will go ahead with a new trial or will drop the case entirely.

Alexander received a 20-year prison sentence for firing a warning shot at her ex-husband. She maintains that she fired the shot in an attempt to stop him from abusing her.

Her case has frequently been compared to that of George Zimmerman, who was found not guilty on grounds of self-defense for the killing of Trayvon Martin, while Alexander was denied Stand Your Ground protection and sentenced to 20 years although no one was injured by her action. She has already spent more than two years in prison.

Alexander testified that after an altercation regarding texts from her ex-husband, she locked herself in the bathroom. Her husband Rico Gray broke through the door, grabbed her by the neck, and shoved her into the door. She ran to the garage, found she couldn’t get the door open, and returned with a gun. When Gray saw the gun, he said, “B*tch, I’ll kill you.” Alexander testified that she fired the gun into the air as a warning shot to scare off her husband. She pleaded Stand Your Ground against her husband. It only took 12 minutes for jurors to convict and reject her self-defense claims. The judge sentenced her under Florida’s 10-20-Life law, which mandated prison terms for certain gun-related offenses.

In September, the court overturned Alexander’s conviction and granted her a new trial.

Please stay tuned to Unheard Voices for the latest updates on Marissa Alexander.