Marissa Alexander, whose case brought allegations that Florida’s Stand Your Ground law is being unfairly applied, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last Friday after being convicted of three counts of aggravated assault after firing a warning shot during a dispute with her husband.

Alexander, 31, claimed she fired a shot from a handgun into the wall to protect herself during a confrontation with her husband, Rico Gray, 36. Two children were with him when she fired a shot in his direction, and she was charged with three counts of aggravated assault.

Her attorneys claimed self-defense and cited the state’s Stand Your Ground law, which gives people some protection from prosecution for using potentially deadly force in cases in which they feel their life is threatened.

But a jury agreed with prosecutors that the law didn’t apply because she left during the argument, got a gun and returned to confront him.

Last week, State Attorney Angela Corey, who is also handling the Zimmerman case, said she personally met with Alexander and reviewed the evidence in the case. She said she offered Alexander a three-year sentence before trial, despite the case qualifying for a 20-year minimum mandatory sentence.

The case has sparked rallies on Alexander’s behalf, described a heated scene outside the courtroom after the sentencing:

“Three years is not mercy and 20 years is not justice,” U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown told Corey in an animated confrontation in the hallway. “If there ever was a stand-your-ground case, it was this one.”

“This is the beginning, not the end,” Brown said of Alexander case. “Clearly there is institutional racism.”

“The law was made for people like Ms. Alexander,” Cobbin said. “They did not make it for people running around on the streets shooting people. They made it for women in their homes trying to defended themselves against abusive mean men.”