Jacob Sullum on Marissa Alexander As a Reverse George Zimmerman

Last week a Florida appeals court ordered a new trial for Marissa Alexander, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing a shot into the ceiling during a 2010 confrontation with her husband at their Jacksonville home. Critics of George Zimmerman's acquittal in the killing of Trayvon Martin often cite the Alexander case as evidence of racial bias in the application of Florida's "stand your ground" self-defense law. But Senior Editor Jacob Sullum says Florida's law played no role in Zimmerman's defense and was arguably irrelevant in Alexander's trial as well. The factor that really mattered, Sullum argues, is one that Florida's justice system shares with those of every state: the presumption of innocence. Zimmerman benefited from it, he says, while the appeals court's ruling suggests Alexander did not.