Shooter Convicted in Florida ‘Stand Your Ground’ Trial

A jury in Jacksonville, Fla., on Wednesday convicted Michael Dunn, a middle-aged white man, of murdering African-American teenager Jordan Davis.

Dunn opened fire on Davis and three of the 17-year-old’s friends after he claimed to see a shotgun in the teenagers’ car.

Prosecutors argued successfully that there was no gun, and Dunn shot at the young men because he was angry that they were playing loud “thug” music.

If the case was a test of Florida’s stand your ground law, which allows defendants to claim self-defense if they feel threatened, the law prevailed. Unlike the trial of George Zimmerman, who shot and killed Trayvon Martin, also in Florida, the jury decided that Dunn was not afraid, but simply angry.

The New York Times:

Mr. Dunn killed Mr. Davis, prosecutors said, not because he feared for his life, but because he viewed the teenagers as gangsters and grew enraged that Mr. Davis cursed and disrespected him. What is more, they added, the defendant’s behavior after the shooting cloaked him in guilt: Mr. Dunn never called the police, instead fleeing the scene and driving to the hotel where he and Ms. Rouer were staying. Then he walked the dog, poured himself a rum and Coke and ordered a pizza.

Even after hearing on television that someone had died, he did not call the police but drove two and a half hours home. Working off his license plate number, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office picked up Mr. Dunn the next morning outside his home in Satellite Beach. He then cooperated with the police.

John Guy, a prosecutor, said Mr. Dunn’s account of the shooting defied common sense. “The defendant didn’t shoot Jordan Davis to save his life,” Mr. Guy said. “He murdered him to preserve his pride.”

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— Posted by Peter Z. Scheer