attorneys who prosecuted mr. dunn, and a little bit of his closing rebuttal argument, and then i want to get you to react to an issue that was used or not used, and that is the issue of race. let s listen to assistant state attorney john guy during his closing rebuttal. jordan davis didn t have a weapon. he had a big mouth. and that defendant wasn t going to stand for it. and it cost jordan davis his life. this case is not about self-defense, it s about self-denial from that defendant. that s why it s not a self-defense case. that s why it s a murder case. he didn t have to shoot him. he decided to shoot him. now, lisa, one thing that was not used in the rebuttal in the closing arguments was explicitly the issue of race. and what how do you think that that impacted the outcome
say? i hate that thug music. and what was your response to the defendant? i said, yes, i know. that was rhonda rouer, the girlfriend of michael dunn, testifying to the opinion of the, quote, thug music playing in the car where jordan davis was sitting with his friends. and this was dunn s attorney, cory thohla making his argument. you know who didn t duck? jordan davis. you know why he didn t duck? because he was getting out of the car with a weapon, after telling michael dunn, you re dead [ bleep ]. this is going down now. you have four men against one. those are some of the moments during the trial, when racial overtones may have seemed readily apparent in a case where a white man was accused of killing an frafrican-american teen. and yet the question of race was
not expressly evoked in the case. we have lisa bloom and with me in the studio are jelani cobb with the university of connecticu connecticut, and the executive director of the metropolitan center for urban education. rincu sen, the executive president of the race forward, and publisher of colorlines.com, and michael denzel smith, a writer for the nation.com and a nobler fellow at the nation institute. so i want to go right to you guys on the panel and sort of get your reactions to what you just heard. sort of the framing, jelani, of this case by the dunn defense. well, i mean, a few weeks ago, we heard richard sherman say that when people were calling him a thug, they were using that as a reference for the n word.
i want to pun pack that just a little bit, rinku, because is this a racist result? you had a justice system prosecute michael dunn for the shooting. a jury, using the law they had, convicted him on four counts, out of five. is this a racist result or is this the way the criminal justice system is supposed to play out? i mean, he was convicted of something. well, the big problem here is that we re still debating whether or not race is a factor in this case and in this trial. and for as long as we re debating if, we cannot get to the how. so, from my perspective, the problem with the way the prosecution has carried out both of these trials now is that by refusing to put race on the table, they enable the bias that stand your ground codifies to continue and to remain invisible, remain unclear and hidden. so, tania weathersby had a great
time in jail if his appeal isn t successful, that should satisfy people in this case. i m tired. i m tired of being i m tireded of trying to come up with words to talk about young black children being dead, being killed. i m tired of trying to look at the parents go through what they have to go through to know the names of black children for all of the wrong reasons. i m physically, emotionally exhausted of this. but i m not surprised that a racist system produces a racist result. we can, like, sit here and be happy that he s going to go to jail for the rest of his life, if that s how you feel, if you believe in the american justice system, in some capacity, that that then brings justice to someone. it brings justice to anyone. but the fact is that jordan davis is dead. trayvon martin is dead, renisha mcbride, marley graham, jonathan farrell. the list keeps going on and on and i m tired.