Marissa Alexander denied bail for now

Marissa Alexander case: No decision on bond:

The judge in the case of Marissa Alexander, the Florida mother of three who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot over the head of her husband, who she claimed abused her, made no decision on whether to release her on bond Wednesday. 

Alexander’s attorneys filed the motion for release this week, before Judge James Daniel in Jacksonville. Daniel was the trial judge in Alexander’s original case. 

In court, they argued that Alexander argued that she poses no threat to society, or to Rico Gray, her husband, with whom she is finalizing a divorce. The lawyers said there is no longer animosity between the two. The state attorney’s office opposed bail, saying there was nothing new about the case, no new evidence, and “nothing new about Marissa” that would indicate she should be granted bond. 

Alexander has spent 1,007 days behind bars, including a 365-day sentence on a misdemeanor battery charge stemming from a December incident at Gray’s home, months after the August gun incident.

Over 3,000 US prisoners serving life without parole for non-violent crimes

This is just incredibly absurd:

A few months later Jackson was convicted of shoplifting and sent to Angola prison in Louisiana. That was 16 years ago. Today he is still incarcerated in Angola, and will stay there for the rest of his natural life having been condemned to die in jail. All for the theft of a jacket, worth $159. 

Jackson, 53, is one of 3,281 prisoners in America serving life sentences with no chance of parole for non-violent crimes. Some, like him, were given the most extreme punishment short of execution for shoplifting; one was condemned to die in prison for siphoning petrol from a truck; another for stealing tools from a tool shed; yet another for attempting to cash a stolen cheque. 

“It has been very hard for me,” Jackson wrote to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as part of its new report on life without parole for non-violent offenders. “I know that for my crime I had to do some time, but a life sentence for a jacket value at $159. I have met people here whose crimes are a lot badder with way less time.”

How could anyone think this is justified? Why aren't these people being pardoned? Not only is it morally reprehensible it has to cost states a lot of tax dollars housing these inmates for the rest of their lives for these petty offenses.