Well, do the crime do the time. What she did fits the definition of the crime and she used a gun so it’s 20 years. She should never have gone back to get her keys if she was afraid that her SO was going to hurt her. You don’t seek out confrontations like that with a gun in your hand and expect that things will turn out alright. Also, although the article doesn’t say it I would bet that she talked to the cops and that her own words were used to convict her in court. If she had said nothing and let her lawyer do the talking it would have been a she said he said that probably wouldn’t have been brought to trail. As it was she was stupid to not take the plea bargain, she knew she was guilty (no where in the article does any one contradict the “facts” of the case), her lawyer knew what she had told the cops and knew what the penalty was. You don’t roll the dice with that kind of risk, it sounds like she was relying on the sympathy factor of being the poor abused woman. Problem with that defense is it only works if you’ve killed him, then you can be like Mary Winkler and walk after doing a few months.
I agree with much of what you say and she did not put herself in a defensible position ... however there is absolutely no justification for 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot.