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Criminal Justice Disparity

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Criminal Justice Disparity

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Jessica Chestnutt

Sociology

It is a fact that African-Americans are more likely to be arrested and convicted and committed to an institution than whites who committed the same offense. Just this year in Florida two people committed the same crime and one person was sentenced to 20 years in prison while the other was at first never charged with a crime. One offender was black and the other offender was white.

The first offender was Marissa Alexander, an African-America 31 year old mother of three, with one of the children being 9 days old. After an altercation with her husband, Marissa shot a gun in the air to scare the man that was abusing her away. Marrisa claimed her estranged husband had beaten her several time prior to this incident. Her estranged husband did indeed have a history of domestic violence. Marissa shot the gun, which she was licensed to use, into the air. She never had any intentions on doing anything but scaring the man away from her. Marissa was prosecuted and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, even though no was injured. Marissa thought that since the facts seemed so clear she would go to trial and prove her case. Her attorneys used the stand-your-ground law as her defense. The law simply meant that if you were in a life of death situation you can take any means necessary to protect yourself. Before she went to trail the prosecutor offered a plea deal of 3 years but Marissa did not accept. The judge quickly threw out that defense and Marissa was sentenced to 20 years in prison with no parole. Her family is currently trying to appeal the sentence but with little money they are having a hard time finding an attorney to take on this case.

The second offender is a man named George Zimmerman, a white male that resides in a suburban

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