Not Another Victim — I’m An Empowered Survivor Defendant | Marissa Alexander | TEDxFSCJ

Every day three women in the U.S. are murdered by their domestic partners. But after Marissa Alexander fired a single warning shot as her estranged husband threatened to kill her, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Eventually, Alexander survived both domestic violence and imprisonment, and in so doing, brought national attention to the criminalization of survivors. Her message to each of us is clear: Ending the cycle of domestic violence should not mean having to choose between life and death, or freedom and prison. Marissa Alexander is a speaker, success coach, and survivor defendant consultant. Her case remains among the most widely cited examples of the injustice of mandatory minimum laws and the criminalization of domestic violence survivors. Alexander has appeared on CNN and MSNBC and was profiled in The New York Times and Rolling Stone. She is currently writing her first book. Alexander holds a bachelor’s degree in business and a master’s degree in business administration. To learn more, visit www.marissaalexander.org This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx