Another tragic and depressing case of Stand Your Ground is here with a new case getting started with SYG being used by the defense. Teenager Jordan Davis was shot and killed the day before Thanksgiving in 2012 while sitting in the backseat of a car full of his friends that had stopped at a gas station to fuel up.
You can guess what happened next — a gun owner with a gun in his car pulls up beside them and doesn't like their music nor the volume level, and a familiar equation plays out: black teen + white male with gun + Florida + Stand Your Ground = dead black teen.
The trial got started today and the defense says it plans to use Stand Your Ground:
The trial for the Florida man accused of shooting and killing an unarmed black teen in an argument over loud music will start Monday, and his attorneys say he plans to use the controversial “Stand Your Ground” law as a defense.
In 2013, Rolling Stone published an article about the case and the history of Stand Your Ground:
His eyes rolling back, he gasped for air as the three friends shrieked for help. "Jordan was making that rattle people make when they're dying," says Tevin. "That's when Leland started to cry. I hugged him and tried to tell him it'd be OK." ... Soon, the Gate gas station bristled with sirens: cops securing the crime scene and taking statements, collecting a dozen firsthand accounts; ... and detectives comforting his stricken friends, particularly Leland, who couldn't stop sobbing. Jordan was his best friend; they all but lived at each other's houses. "Jordan was my third son - I loved that boy," says Tanya Booth-Brunson, Leland's mother. "He had this shine on him that lit up the room. He was a star, and everyone knew it."
http://www.rollingstone.com/...
Here's something I hadn't heard before regarding Stand Your Ground - the person invoking it only has to think they are being threatened and in this case, Dunn thought he saw a gun. According to Roy Black, a prominent defense attorney, that seems to be true - you just have to think you are being threatened in order to "stand your ground":
http://america.aljazeera.com/...
Jordan's mom is Lucy McBeth and she is a national spokesperson for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense. You can get to know her, Jordan's father, and their and Jordan's story in this interview on the Roland Martin show:
http://www.youtube.com/...
Michael Dunn shot Jordan Davis, and his defense is he saw a gun in the car in which Jordan was sitting. The Tampa Bay Tribune has a fact sheet on the case that indicates Davis was unarmed:
Location details: Gate Gas Station parking lot in Jacksonville, Duval County, on Nov. 23, 2012
What happened: Michael David Dunn pulled into a gas station parking lot next to a black SUV with tinted windows and loud music. He asked Jordan Davis, a passenger in the back seat, to turn the music down. There were words exchanged and Dunn pulled out a gun and shot at the SUV, at least, eight times. Dunn said he fired in self-defense because he saw a shotgun and didn't know how many people were in the SUV. He also said he didn't think he hit anyone so he just left the scene and drove 159 miles to his home in Brevard County. Davis was hit twice and killed. No one else in the SUV was injured and no weapons were found at the scene. Dunn was arrested the following day and charged with murder and attempted murder.
http://www.tampabay.com/...