A Florida woman has accepted a plea deal to serving 65 days in prison for firing a warning shot near her husband after she felt threatened that he would harm her. Marissa Alexander was convicted in 2010 on three counts of aggravated assault and was formerly facing 20 years in prison.

On Monday, Alexander agreed to a plea deal that reduced her punishment to a three-year prison sentence. The Duval County courthouse in Jacksonville, Florida, ruled that Alexander would be credited for the time she already spent in prison as part of those three years, according to the Florida-Times Union. Therefore, her new release date is scheduled for Jan. 27.

After her release, Alexander will also serve two years under house arrest. Her second count is still an open plea, so at her January hearing she could be sentenced to an additional five years in prison.

Alexander shot at her estranged husband, Rico Gray, in 2010, in what she claimed was self-defense.

Despite the Stand Your Ground defense that was used by Alexander's attorneys, the judge denied her claim that she was under threat. The judge said that she could have used other means to escape her abusive husband rather than retrieving a gun from her car and running back into the house to shoot him.

Alexander said she shot at a wall where her husband was standing with their two sons.

State Attorney Angela Corey, who supported the handling of Alexander's case, said she believed Alexander's shot could have potentially ricocheted and injured one of her sons.

The case has been compared to the trial of George Zimmerman, who used the Stand Your Ground defense when he was acquitted in the fatal shooting of black teenager Trayvon Martin.

Alexander's case received much attention from national media, the NAACP and domestic violence advocacy groups. It also furthered the ongoing debate, largely because of the Zimmerman trial, of Florida's Stand Your Ground clause and how it should be implemented in cases.

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