yesterday morning the lawyer for Michael Dunn started the first full day of his
defense in the murder trial
love his fatal shooting of 17-year-old Jordan Davis
in what is definitely the most prominent Florida
stand your ground related case since the Trayvon Martin george Zimmerman case
although ultimately
stand your ground was not the deciding factor in that case
done and his lawyer are invoking the language of the Stand Your Ground law
to show that he shot the seemingly
unarmed teen in self defense and
at the same time that this is happening out a little bit more about that story
in a second a state Senate panel
is looking at expanding the Florida stand your ground statutes even further
to remind you about that michael dunn case
four black guys in high school were sitting in a Dodge Durango
they were at a convenience store in amid upper income neighborhood
one guy goes inside to get some gun and let me be clear
some chewing gum not a gun I wanna be
absolutely clear that nobody's going to confuse what I'm saying
done pulls up next to them and he was so close
that the doors were almost impossible to open because Michael Dunn had pulled up
so close when I'm he got out of the car
there was loud music coming from the Dodge Durango done told them to turn it
down and they did
then they turned it back up done got into an argument with them pulled out
his gun and fired 10 shots
into the Dodge Durango killing one person
the kids in the Durango said that
they had no guns ultimately absolutely no guns were found
done immediately fled the scene he was found
the next day a hundred miles away
and he saying that it was stand your ground
that he was in fear for his life because if the
altercation he caused as a result of his problem
with the loud music now the NRA's lobbying hard in florida
to expand stand your ground even further up Florida's Stand Your Ground law
grants immunity from both criminal and civil charges to those who use deadly
force
well when they have a legal right to do
that without retreating is a i think that the clearest way to say it in other
words
if you use deadly force when you're standing somewhere you're allowed to be
without retreating you are justified in using deadly force and therefore you are
immune from civil and criminal prosecution
and now there is a new bill it's been dubbed the warning shot bill and a
threatened
force bill it would extend stand your ground like immunity
from both criminal and civil charges to those who pointed a gun at an attacker
or fire the gun as a warning shot
that's just what we need in Florida Louis even more
relaxed stand your ground statute well
a warning shot party that I can understand we did see a woman jailed
or firing a warning shot at or
at her he was your boyfriend or husband I'm who she was
felt threatened by I with no intent to actually shoot anyone
I we saw her get help with that so what I maybe that's where actually
some people are saying what you're saying and you may be right but I think
it's further confusing the issue because
if was she's standing her ground in other words this entire mentality
a stand-your-ground is not a necessary
component to the law she the fact that she didn't
intended to hit him with the bullet is one of these things where
yes it completely mangled that case ultimately end because if the jury
instructions he became a mess
I just don't think that making the law even more relaxed is the way to solve
that particular case probably not
but we will see it here we have a case where
the laws coming up again and the outcome will determine whether or not the law
works right because if this man is found guilty
then I guess maybe we don't have to worry maybe this evens out
with the Trayvon Martin case okay yeah I although I certainly don't think anybody
who is a victim of the
in Trayvon Martin's family we think that there's anything even about it
which now of course not that that's what that you were suggesting but from a
legal point point of view
maybe they would get one right but I think if you don't get both right
then it's it's just simply not even