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Tag: michael dunn

  • Angela Corey Plans To Re-Try Dunn

    Angela Corey Plans To Re-Try Dunn

    The jury in the Michael Dunn case announced on Saturday evening that they could not reach a unanimous decision regarding the count of first degree murder. A mistrial was declared on that count, with the option for Florida prosecutor Angela Corey to retry Dunn at a later date.

    Corey didn’t miss a beat, announcing that she fully intends to retry Dunn on the remaining, but most significant count.

    “Ten times out of 10 when someone fires 10 shots into a car full of unarmed teenagers we will file first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder.”

    The successful conviction on the other charges means that lengthy prison term awaits Dunn barring a successful appeal, retrial, and acquittal. However, much of the case hinged on the murder of unarmed Davis and a car riddled with bullets.

    The case drew many parallels with the infamous George Zimmerman case. Zimmerman was found not guilty of the murder of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African American teen who he fatally shot. The teens that Dunn fired upon were also African American and unarmed.

    Like Zimmerman, Dunn tried to justify the shooting, which escalated over the loud music the teens had been playing, under the “Stand Your Ground” defense. It is a defense which some feel provides a racist double standard when it comes to gun laws in Florida.

    Even when racism isn’t at the heart of the defense, the cases involving armed citizens firing on and killing unarmed citizens is setting a troubling legal standard for the state.

    Even if Corey is not able to successfully convict Dunn on the murder charge, it’s possible that the partial conviction may represent some progress towards a precedence where certain scenarios are confronted as attempted murder and cold blooded killing rather than allowed to hide behind a facade of so-called self-defence.

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  • Florida Shooting Trial: The Jury Still Out

    The Trial of Micheal Dunn, the Florida man accused of murdering 17-year old Jordan Davis, concluded this past Wednesday, and right now, the jury is in their second day of deliberation.

    For those who aren’t familiar with the case, Dunn came in contact with Davis and Davis’ friends while he stopped at a Jacksonville gas station in 2012 to pick up a bottle of wine and potato chips.

    While Dunn’s fiance entered the store, he got into an argument with Davis and his friends over loud music coming from their SUV. According to Dunn, he believed that one of the teens pointed a shotgun at him, after the occupants of both cars had a heated and cursed-filled exchange.

    But afterwards police found no gun, either at the gas station or in the shopping plaza down the street where the teens fled after Dunn released 10 shots, and since Dunn left the scene right after and never called police, many believe he was trying to get away because he knew that he did something wrong.

    Plus, he never called the cops or alerted 911 at all, so days after the shooting police tracked him down in Brevard Country where he lives, and eventually charged him with first degree murder and attempted murder for also shooting at the other teens in the car.

    Although some believe the prosecution has an open and shut case, others believe that Dunn was justified in shooting Davis, although no gun was ever found on him or in the vehicle.

    Erin Wolfson, who’s one of the state’s prosecutors, said this case is nothing more than a middle aged man getting upset because a bunch of teenagers were mouthing off at him.

    “This defendant, when he pulled up next to that SUV, his blood started to boil,” she said during her closing arguments.

    “He didn’t like the music that was coming out of the car next to him. He got angrier and angrier as that music irritated him. This defendant went crazy. He got angry at the fact that a 17-year old kid decided not to listen to him.”

    Image via Justice.gov

  • Michael Dunn: “Loud Music Killer” Rests His Case

    Another Development has been brought to light in the controversial Florida shooting of 17-year-old Jordan Davis. The accused shooter, 47-year-old Michael Dunn, delivered an impassioned testimony on Tuesday about how Davis threatened to kill him and reached inside his SUV to get what seemed to be a firearm. Believing that Davis was going to make good on his threat, Dunn got his gun from his car’s glove compartment and fired at the teenager. Davis’ death was almost instant.

    Michael Dunn, who is a computer programmer, had just left his son’s wedding reception in the afternoon of November 23, 2012. He and his fiancée, Rhonda Rauer, stopped by a gas station in Jacksonville to pick up some wine before heading back to their hotel when he encountered Jordan Davis and three other African-American teenagers playing loud music in their Dodge Durango.

    Dunn conveyed to the jury that he asked the teenagers to turn the volume down as the music caused rattling on the sides and rear-view mirror of his Volkswagen Jetta. After obliging his request, Dunn claims that they immediately turned the volume up again and screamed expletives directed toward him. After confronting them, Dunn says that Davis picked up a shotgun and used it to pound against the passenger door. Convinced that Davis was going to kill him with it, Dunn reached for his pistol and fatally shot Davis.

    Prosecutors maintain that there was no real life threat in the incident as no firearms were found in the teenagers’ vehicle. During the cross-examination, it was revealed through an official medical examination that Davis might have been sitting inside the SUV when Dunn shot him.

    In addition to one count of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder, Dunn is also facing charges of shooting or throwing a deadly missile. The prosecutor also showed jurors inconsistencies in Dunn’s answers when questioned about the amount of alcohol he consumed prior to his encounter with Davis. Dunn also insisted that he told his fiancée about the teenagers bearing firearms, although her cross-examination answers say otherwise. The defense rested at around 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday and closing arguments start on Wednesday morning.

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