and stereotypes and frankly prejudice that this man possessed. and dwloong that was clearly set forth in the trial. but it was sort of one of those underlying issues. we ve got to figure out how we address these issues as prosecutors, because i know that on the one hand, it s a very polarizing issue for the jury. you sort of insert that and for some juries, they don t believe that racism is still an issue. or they don t want to be confronted with it and have to address it. so prosecutors sort of dance around it sometimes. but in a case like this where this man has been so explicit in his letters about how he feels about black people, he even said he didn t want black jurors on this the juror for this very reason because he knew he went through that narrative in his testimony. going forward, i think we have to look at that in jury selection and how we address that issue going forward. well, we ll talk more about him and his opinions of race coming up. faith jenkins, ken padowitz and l
killing of my son, that it was not just another day at the office. we expect dunn to be sentenced on those charges of attempted murder sometime next month, harris. you know, i ve pointed this out to viewers last night when the story was braking that when the prosecutor stepped up to the microphone for the news conference after the verdicts were hand down and announced, they looked familiar some of them, and i said this is because this is partially the same prosecution team that we saw in the zimmerman trial as well. and now the prosecution is getting some criticism. that s right. some more criticism for what is at least in part another high-profile failure. the prosecution failing to deliver on that murder one charge. downhimself appeared stunned by the verdict. and his own defense attorney said he never saw this coming. it is disbelief. it has not sunk in. even when he sat next to me he said how is this happening? the state has said they
vehicle that night and for them, justice was, in fact, served on saturday. i think it s important that michael dunn tried to kill four people. he killed one. he attempted on three others. those three young men in the car, tommy was driving that car as a hero, pulled back and drove away as michael dunn stepped out of the car and continued shooting and pumping bullets into a car full of unarmed teenagers. those young men deserve justice, as well. we still want justice for jordan davis, we re going to fight for justice for jordan, but at least those three young men got justice they deserved. here s the thing, i remember vividly having almost an identical conversation with you after the zimmerman trial, and it seems we re talking about a lot of the same issues with regards to stand your ground and what appears to be quite the culture of guns in the state of florida. how do we move the conversation forward? i think it s important to point out the distinction. we saw davis, lucy mcbath
thank you both for being here. thank you, rev. thanks, reverend. kendall, the judge ruled on these dunn letters just before the trial. he said, quote, the comments are not admissible and irrelevant because they came after the shooting. why did he make that ruling? and how did that affect the prosecution s case? well, the judge certainly wasn t trying to sanitize michael dunn. he was trying to minimize the risk that an appeals court, after everything that would happen during one or maybe two trials might reverse it, because there are some appellate decisions which seem to indicate that comments, even racist comments made in some separation of time after the fact can t be brought in. so the judge is trying to get it right and have an error-free trial. i think without the judge intending to do so, to some extent, he pulled the rug out from under the prosecution on that issue because the prosecution had valuable extremely on-point evidence that they couldn t use.
came likely down to florida s self-defense law that includes stand your ground, saying if you feel reasonably threatened, and the person isn t engaged in unlawful activity in a place they have a right to be, they have no duty to retreat. a right to stand their ground, and can meet force with force, including deadly force. if they reasonably believe it is necessary. the trial sends a chilling message to parents that you can shoot first and ask questions later. that s not justice, and this law needs to change. back with us tonight, former prosecutor faith jenkins, florida criminal defense lawyer ken padowitz, and legal analyst lisa bloom. i want to hear from all of you first, starting with you, lisa. your reaction to the verdict.