ON POLITICS

Angela Corey lost her primary, and the Internet is celebrating

Steph Solis
USA TODAY
State Attorney Angela Corey holds a news conference regarding charges to be brought against defendant George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin shooting, April 11, 2012 in Jacksonville, Florida.

Angela Corey, a state attorney in northeast Florida who investigated the shooting death of Trayvon Martin and prosecuted Marissa Alexander for firing a warning shot during a domestic dispute, lost the Republican primary on Tuesday for 4th circuit judicial state attorney.

Melissa Nelson, a corporate lawyer and former prosecutor, claimed 64% of the vote over Corey's 26% in the fourth circuit, which oversees Jacksonville, Fla. Nelson will face Kenny Leigh, a write-in candidate who runs a men's only law firm, in the general election. (Fun fact: no write-in candidate has ever been elected to a state attorney position in Florida, the Florida Times-Union has reported.)

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While Corey was considered a shoe-in before Nelson entered the primary, according to the Florida Times-Union, she remains a controversial figure. To her biggest critics, Corey is the prosecutor who failed to convince a jury to convict Zimmerman of second-degree murder for fatally shooting Martin, a black 17-year-old. Civil rights leaders have told USA TODAY that if Martin had been white, Zimmerman would have been arrested the night of the shooting. Zimmerman's father is white, and his mother is Hispanic.

Corey's biggest critics also lambasted her for prosecuting Alexander, a woman who fired what she described as a warning shot to scare off her allegedly abusive husband during a dispute. No one was hurt. Alexander invoked the "stand your ground" defense in 2012, which also played a role in the Zimmerman case. The judge threw out Alexander's self-defense claim, siding with the prosecutor's argument that she fired out of anger instead of out of fear for her life.

When news spread of her defeat, many of her critics took to Twitter to express just how happy they were:

Among those celebrating was Grammy Awards winner John Legend. He told the Times-Union in a statement that Corey failed the voters by pushing for the death penalty, disproportionately charging juveniles of color as adults, and that her ouster is a sign of rejection by her community.

“Prosecutors possess much of the power to end mass incarceration and to make our criminal justice system smarter and more just,” said ten-time Grammy Awards winner John Legend in a written statement. “They have the power to decide whether to charge or not, how to negotiate a plea deal, and whether or not to pursue the harshest punishment possible. With this power should come the responsibility to carry out their duties with balance, wisdom and compassion and without prejudice or bias. They should do so with the goal of bringing healing and safety to the community, rather than merely being as tough as the law will allow.

“Today the voters in Jacksonville and throughout Florida’s 4th Judicial Circuit have decided that Angela Corey failed in that responsibility by aggressively seeking the death penalty and egregiously charging juveniles, particularly those of color, as adults. Her tactics have been rejected by her community, and we applaud the voters for rejecting them. This is a sign of positive things to come in our fight for a #FREEAMERICA.”

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Corey just happens to be on the cover of the left-leaning weekly magazine The Nation this month. The headline asks, "Is Angela Corey the most hated prosecutor in America?" The cover also says "And she doesn't understand why people hate her."

Considering her name is trending nationwide on Twitter, chances are there are people have made their reasons quite clear.

Contributing: WTLV.