Text by Free Marissa Now Mobilization Campaign
Words cannot express the relief and joy of everyone in the Free Marissa Now Mobilization Campaign that Marissa Alexander is home with her family this Thanksgiving Day. Ms. Alexander has been released on bond until a verdict is reached in her new trial that begins March 31, 2014. We hope the decision means that the Florida justice system has relented in its vindictive, hostile and racist legal assault on this African American mother of three. Ms. Alexander has been victimized twice — once by her abusive ex-husband and again by the state of Florida, which has stolen nearly three years from her life for an act of self-defense that injured no one.
We are thrilled that Ms. Alexander will be able to prepare for her new trial amid the support and love of her children and family from whom she has been separated far too long.
But the battle is not over. It is well documented that black women and other marginalized people are likely to be criminalized, prosecuted, and incarcerated while trying to navigate and survive the conditions of violence in their lives. This is especially true for black women who are subjected to racist stereotypes that paint them as overly aggressive and unworthy. The Free Marissa Now Mobilization Campaign will keep organizing, educating and keeping the pressure on to make sure that Marissa’s new trial is fair, sensitive to her situation as a black woman experiencing domestic abuse, and successful!
The Free Marissa Now Mobilization Campaign is more determined than ever to win complete exoneration for Marissa Alexander. We have launched the Marissa Alexander Freedom Fund campaign to raise $20,000 by the end of the year to help pay for legal costs of the new trial. Donors can give at tiny.cc/freedomfundraiser.
Free Marissa Now Mobilization Campaign is a grassroots campaign led by a core of organizers representing the African American/Black Women’s Cultural Alliance, New Jim Crow Movement – Jacksonville, Radical Women, INCITE!, and the Pacific Northwest Alliance to Free Marissa Alexander. To arrange an interview, please contact FreeMarissaNow@gmail.com or call 904-631-1674 (Jacksonville), 443-812-9503 (Washington, DC area), 206-473-0630 (Seattle).
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