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Jury Deliberations Begin in Florida Trial for Murder of Black Teen; Prosecutors Omit Damning Letters

HeadlineFeb 13, 2014

Jury deliberations have begun in the murder trial of a Florida man who shot dead a black teenager in a dispute over loud music. In November 2012, Michael David Dunn pulled up next to a car of teenagers to ask them to turn down their stereo. Following an argument, Dunn shot eight or nine times into the vehicle, even after the teens tried to drive away, fatally hitting 17-year-old Jordan Russell Davis. The young men never got out of their car, and no weapons were ever found inside. Dunn fled the scene with his fiancée instead of calling the police, went to a hotel and ordered pizza. He claims he saw a weapon, feared for his life, and acted in self-defense. But in testimony during the trial, Dunn’s fiancée said at the time Dunn never told her he saw a gun. In closing arguments, Assistant State Attorney John Guy urged jurors to convict.

John Guy: “If Jordan Davis had a gun, that defendant would have never left the scene. If Jordan Davis had a gun, he would have called the police. If he was truly acting in self-defense, he wouldn’t have been running from everybody. He wouldn’t have lied to the police. He wouldn’t have changed his story.”

The shooting has prompted comparisons to the death of Trayvon Martin. Dunn’s attorneys have invoked the Stand Your Ground law, and two of the prosecutors in the case also unsuccessfully tried Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman. As with the Zimmerman trial, prosecutors have ignored the issue of race during the proceedings. Damning letters written by Dunn during his pretrial imprisonment were never introduced to the jury. Dunn wrote family members that he thinks the justice system is biased in favor of African Americans. He writes: “This may sound a bit radical, but if more people would arm themselves and kill these [bleeping] idiots when they’re threatening you, eventually they may take the hint and change their behavior.”

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