Michael Dunn Faces Retrial For Murder Charge of 17-Year-Old Jordan Davis

Michael Dunn, the Florida man who shot Jordan Davis, 17, in a dispute about loud music was convicted on three counts of second degree murder over the weekend. The jury couldn’t reach a decision on the murder charge, resulting in a mistrial.

[Here’s the backstory surrounding this tragic case: On November 2012, Dunn, a 47-year-old white man got into a dispute with Davis, a black high school senior over loud music while at a convenience store. Dunn claims that the teens threatened him after he asked them to turn the music, which he dubbed ‘rap crap’ down. Specifically, Dunn says the Jordan threatened him and he thought  he saw the barrel of a shot gun . He fired 10 rounds into the car, as the car was leaving the parking lot, shooting Jordan three times in the lung, liver and aorta. Dunn drove back to his hotel without calling the authorities. The police never found a gun in the car and witnesses never reported seeing one.]

Dunn’s case was determined by Florida’s controversial stand your ground law, which allows individuals to protect themselves with lethal force if they feel threatened. In 2013, Dunn’s lawyer, Corey Strolla explained,

I don’t have to prove the threat, just that Mike Dunn believed it. This is a family man who never had a violent incident in his life, who acted because of words said by Jordan Davis. He screamed, ‘F-ck you, motherf-cker, I’m gonna kill you,’ and was trying to open his door to get out. So absolutely, this is a Stand Your Ground case, based on the law in Florida.

Davis’ father Ron Davis stated after the verdict,

[Jordan] was a good kid. It wasn’t allowed to be said in the court room, but we’ll say it. He was a good kid. There are a lot of good kids out there . . . They should have a voice. They shouldn’t have to live in fear … that if they get shot, it’s just collateral damage . . .  We do not accept a law that would allow collateral damage to our family members . . . We expect the law to be behind us, and protect us. That’s what I wanted the law to do – to protect Jordan as we protected Jordan.

Michael Dunn will be retried on the first degree murder charge. The jury couldn’t decide if Dunn acted in self defense or was guilty of murder. Each of the second degree murder convictions carry a minimum sentence of 20 years each and he may be charged with firing a gun into a car. Over the weekend, Jordan would have celebrated his 19th birthday.

[CNN, Rolling Stone]

-@missjohnsonp_