A verdict in the city of Jacksonville could send Michael Dunn to prison for 60 years but not for shooting 17-year-old Jordan Davis, raising the issue of self-defense and race in Florida, the Associated Press reported.
Davis was killed when Dunn shot numerous rounds into a car with occupied by black male teenagers, but the jury couldn't reach a verdict on the first-degree murder charge against Dunn, the AP reported. A mistrial was declared on that count.
The verdict is a far cry from one delivered in the Zimmerman case, when he was acquitted in July in the shooting death of 17-year-old Martin in Sanford, about 125 miles south of Jacksonville, according to the AP.
Like Zimmerman, Dunn said he felt his life was in danger when he fired the shots. But the verdict suggested the jury struggled to see it that way, the AP reported. Dunn said he shot at the car with his 9 mm handgun because he was afraid and thought he saw a shotgun in the car.
According to legal experts, at least one member of the jury believed Dunn's story about being scared, pulling a gun in self-defense and firing the first few shots, which killed Davis, according to the AP. After more than 30 hours of deliberations over four days, the jury couldn't agree on the first-degree murder charge.
"Although I don't think the evidence supports this, it is possible that the jury felt that Dunn was proper to stand his ground as to Davis, but his shooting of the others in the car was excessive," said Kenneth Nunn, a law professor at the University of Florida, the AP reported.
Nunn and other experts said Sunday that it's possible the jury was confused regarding first-degree murder and the concept that it must be "premeditated," according to the AP. In each case, jurors were told by the judges that they should acquit if they found the defendant had no duty to retreat and had the right to "stand his ground."
That phrase is part of standard instructions given jurors when they weigh a case involving a claim of self-defense, according to the AP. But the state's stand your ground law was technically not part of either trial.
"Dunn's attorney argued self-defense, which has been around forever," said Miami defense lawyer and former assistant U.S. Attorney David Weinstein, the AP reported. "I think people will say that because some of the language from the stand your ground statute gets embedded into the jury instructions, that stand your ground has an effect."
Judge Russell L. Healey could impose a 60-year sentence due to state statutes which call for a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years on each second-degree attempted murder conviction, but the Florida Supreme Court could reduce the total sentence to 20 years if it decides that consecutive sentences are not appropriate when the sentences arise from one criminal episode, according to the AP.
