Stand Your Ground Part 2: Dunn vs. Davis—Will Justice Be Blind Again Or Is This A “Done Deal” For The People?

Here we go again about 7 months after George Zimmerman was acquitted for the murder of teenager Trayvon Martin, thanks to Florida‘s controversial “Stand Your Ground” law, we are about to see if history is going to repeat itself again.

Michael Dunn is on trial for killing Jordan Davis.  That trial began Monday, February 10, 2014.  Mr. Dunn, who is white, is charged with killing the black teen over loud music.  On the witness stand Dunn called it “Crap Rap.”  Dunn faces first-degree murder charges for the November 2012 shooting of 17-year-old Jordan Davis.  Trayvon Martin was also 17 years old.  Dunn pleaded not guilty to the charges and three counts of attempted murder related to the three teens that were also in the vehicle; Leland Brunson, Tommie Stornes and Tevin Thompson.

“This was a kid with a big smile, about to graduate high school, with a beautiful head-cheerleader girlfriend,” said John Phillips, a lawyer representing the Davis family.  “He’d been home schooled with a very Christian mom for most of his life. Teachers loved him.  Bright, good kid, no trouble, no more sass than any other 17-year-old.”

Let us brief you on the sequence of events that lead up to the shooting.  Dunn and his fiancé Rhonda Rouer were heading home from his son’s wedding when they stopped at a Jacksonville convenience store next to a sport utility vehicle.  Rouer told jurors that she had two rum and colas and Dunn had “maybe three or four” at the wedding prior to pulling into the parking lot of a Jacksonville gas station beside a red Dodge Durango, which blared with loud music.  Jordan Davis was sitting in the back seat of the vehicle unarmed with three friends when Dunn, who isn’t even from Jacksonville where the incident took place, demanded the teens turn down their music.  One of the friends turned it down, but then Davis turned it back up.  An argument began and Davis cursed Dunn, police said.

“You can’t talk to me like that,” a person walking out of the convenience store said he heard Dunn say.

Dunn has said he felt threatened and thought he saw someone point a gun at him through the back window, so he opened fire.  No gun was found in the boys’ car, and none of the witnesses to the altercation noticed a gun.  Could the alcohol from the wedding have had any affect on his decision-making ability?

According to an October 2013 letter from Dunn who told WJXX TV that Davis yelled: “You’re DEAD [expletive]! This [expletive] is going down NOW.”

“I was convinced that the loss of my life was imminent,” Dunn’s letter continued.  ”I had no choice but to defend myself.”

Dunn had a concealed weapons permit and a 9mm handgun in his glove compartment that was about to change his life forever.  After cocking his weapon and pointing the gun at the Durango, he fired 9 shots; 3 struck Davis and the remaining tore through the vehicle.  Amazing enough his friends were unharmed and initially sped off to get out of harms way, but realized their friend was dead and returned to the scene of the crime.  Bystanders pulled Davis out of the vehicle and began CPR.  Dozens of witnesses gave accounts to police, including an officer already nearby at the time performing a DUI arrest.  Dunn fled the scene, but witnesses took down his license plate number and he was arrested the next day.  The case is similar to the Trayvon Martin’s but hasn’t garnered the same media attention, in part because, unlike Zimmerman, Dunn was arrested when police found him a day later.  Also there were witnesses to the shooting.

In a written statement by Dunn to First Coast News, a local television station: “This case has never been about loud music.  This case is about a local thug threatening to kill me because I dared to ask him to turn the music down.  When Mr. Davis opened his door and said, ‘You’re DEAD [expletive]! This [expletive] is going down NOW,’ I was convinced that the loss of my life was imminent, I had no choice but to defend myself, I am NOT a murderer.  I am a survivor.”

According to several news outlets Dunn stated, “It’s spooky how racist everyone is up here and how biased toward blacks the courts are.  This jail is full of blacks and they all act like thugs,” ended Dunn.  In letters to family members, friends and others he claimed that the media was treating him unfairly.  In a letter to his daughter about “thugs,” he wrote, “This may sound a bit radical but if more people would arm themselves and kill these **** idiots when they’re threatening you, eventually they may take the hint and change their behavior,” WTEV News reports.

Dunn said he was in fear for his life, but never called the police.  He fled the scene of the crime and went back to his hotel and made rum and cokes and ordered a pizza.  Dunn’s girlfriend testified that after fleeing the shooting Dunn did not mention that he saw a gun, stick, led pipe, broom, or anything that looked like a gun.  She said he did not tell her that he saw a gun for 12 days.  This puts in question his statement that he was in fear of his life because he saw a gun.  When the prosecutor asked the girlfriend if Dunn mentioned to her anything about a gun she said no.

Dunn’s attorney has filed motions asking the judge not to allow references to that letter or similar letters in which Dunn referred to Jordan as a “thug,” be used by the prosecution.  He also asked that Jordan not be referred to as a “victim” during the trial.  Jordan’s parents, Ron Davis and Lucia McBath, have been active since their son’s death, urging greater gun control and alterations to Stand-Your-Ground laws.  Ms. McBath is a national spokeswoman for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, and she and Mr. Davis have testified before the Florida legislature and the US Congress.  Davis has said the Stand-Your-Ground law should include a duty to retreat, and to try to find alternatives to using deadly force.

“In your home, you have every right to protect your castle,” Davis told Reuters. “In public, we can’t all walk around acting like we are in our home, telling people what to do in a public place.  We have to share the public space.”

Davis’s mother notes that her son was like her shadow and was scared after Trayvon was killed.  She had a number of talks with him as to what he should do if confronted with someone determined to shoot him down… Sadly he was gunned down before he could even get out of harms way.

Florida prosecutor Angela Corey, the state attorney who charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder in Martin’s shooting death, but then assigned others to lead the prosecution, may be seeking to improve her image after the Zimmerman acquittal because she believes this time the prosecution will win and she will try the case herself.

Jacksonville criminal defense lawyer Janet Johnson, a legal commentator during the Zimmerman trial, told the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, “The prosecution has a very strong case.  It’s a good move for Corey to get the conviction herself and get the credit for it.”

Florida Coastal School of Law professor Rod Sullivan told the newspaper, “if Corey loses, or if a mistrial is declared or the case is overturned on appeal, her ‘reputation will be damaged.’”

The surviving teens said they never had a gun, and police never found one in the Durango or elsewhere.  Dunn attorney Cory Strolla said he planned to argue the friends hid a gun when they briefly left the convenience store.  He told the Times-Union witnesses reported seeing 2 men jump out of the SUV after it drove into an adjacent parking lot, and appeared to be trying to hide something.

“We know that vehicle drove away and there are about a dozen dumpsters in that area,” Strolla told the newspaper in an email.

Mark O’Mara, who represented Zimmerman in his murder trial, said Strolla should be careful not to press the teenagers too hard on the witness stand and that the entire case hinged on whether the teens had a gun in the Durango.

“I would probably go light on those teenagers if I was cross-examining them,” he told the Times-Union. “You have to be really careful not to make them more sympathetic.”

“Dunn said he saw a gun,” O’Mara said.  ”If the jury believes there was a chance to get rid of it, that’s enough for an acquittal.”

Defense attorney Cory Strolla questioned Kipple about the way the evidence was processed at the scene.  Strolla also suggested there may have been time for a weapon to be dumped.  Jurors also heard testimony Saturday from Det. Marc Musser, the lead investigator in the case.  Musser talked about interviewing witnesses after the shooting and how the crime scene was handled.  Things became intense during cross-examination when Strolla hammered Musser about why authorities didn’t search dumpsters or bushes near the area until 4 days after the shooting.  He also questioned why Musser didn’t request recordings of surveillance video when witnesses were brought inside the store.

Strolla’s case will likely involve Dunn being called to testify.  Legal experts have said it would be very hard for Strolla to get an acquittal if Dunn doesn’t take the stand because no one at the scene has backed up his story that Davis threatened him.  Now with Dunn testifying the doors of cross examination are open, unlike the Martin trial where George Zimmerman did not take the stand.  Dunn will have to explain why he fled the scene, didn’t call police, went back to his hotel, ordered a pizza, watched a movie and left Jacksonville early the next morning and returned to Brevard County where he was arrested.

Now that we have giving you an overview of what is going on with this case let’s talk about why we are reliving history and what we must do to make sure this does not happen again.  It’s time for the families to take control and like Nelson Mandela and Dr. King lead us to the promised land of social justice and equality.  We have achieved a lot in this country, but when it comes to criminal justice, sentencing and prison reform we have a long way to go because the laws seem to discriminate against Blacks and Latinos and that is a continued recipe for disaster.

As long as America refuses to have a “Conversation on Race” there are those out there that will continue to think that we are in the days when “Slavery was legal” and minorities had no rights to tell white people how they felt.  According to Dunn’s statement, he was pissed because Davis refused to be talked down to.  In his mind he felt that when he ordered the car full of black youth to turn the “Rap Crap” down they were suppose to do as he said do or like in the days of slavery, “face the whip.”  When you watch movies like “12 Years A Slave” and “Django Unchained” you begin to see how and why the “Stand Your Ground” law is a death sentence for minorities.  If we were living in a society without racism, the law might work, but that is not the reality.  A law like Stand Your Ground just about gives any person who has had a few drinks or is mentally ill the right in their state of mind to shoot anyone they do not like.

Believe it or not in a way, we are all still slaves today.  In spite of Dr. King and all the Civil Right gains, “The Chains Still Remain on our Brains.”  If Dr. King were alive today we would have had a “National Conversation on Race” long ago.  This is a man that had no fear of dying and would tell the truth like it is for the progress, and safety of this country.  That is what you call being a “Gangster for the People” no matter what your color.  He preached that people should be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.

Yes, here we go again, another trial, but what have we learned since the last one.  Commentators are saying that again the prosecutor does not want to talk about race, why not?  A blind man can see that this is about race, but when you don’t discuss the underlying facts and motives of the defendant, then you leave a cloud of suspicion in the minds of all those that are watching, especially young black males all over the country.  Why can’t we talk about what it really is?  If we are no longer a racist society why are we using laws like “Stand Your Ground” that compromise the safety of minorities?

America, where are our Black leaders and organizations when it comes to the “National Conversation on Race?”  It is our hope that the Martin and Davis family get together and find some worthy leaders and start the conversation.  Some one has to be the voice for the voiceless and all those young Blacks and Latinos that have been gunned down on the streets.  We can’t allow the deaths of these 2 young black males be in vain.  At least we can start the conversation on race, which is the main reason why we are writing this story.  This may help start a movement that can stop the next innocent teen from losing his life.  We are failing our children if we don’t start this conversation because at the end of the day, if you don’t address the “Root Cause” of the problem, it will continue to go unchecked, like a cancer out of control.

We have to treat these laws and those that support them like we did the “Apartheid Government” in South Africa.  Look at what Nelson Mandela had to go through to put an end that racist regime.  We in America have to be willing to do the same, but it will not come without pressure from the “Court of Public Opinion.”  We have to confront and identify those that believe that because they are wealthy, influential and white, that others have no real rights in this country.  And once we shine the bright light on this dark behavior we will finally be free of laws that devalue the “moral stock” of the Greatest Country on Earth.

America, are you finally ready for the “Conversation on Race” that the President suggested last year right after the George Zimmerman acquittal?  We can sit around complaining while some in our society continue to play ‘Russian Roulette’ with the lives of young black males or we can ‘Stand Up’ and organize a “Serious National Conversation on Race” so we can create real solutions to a problem that has existed for over 400 years.  Which of our community and political leaders will finally take the lead?  We will be watching and reporting back to you.

If you would like to join a movement to finally have a “Conversation on Race” hit us up at: RandyKFisher@gmail.com.

Story by Charles Fisher and Randy Fisher (Twitter @HHSYC).