The Florida “loud music” murder trial begins at Noon today.
As you’ll recall, 47-year-old Michael Dunn is charged with 1st degree murder (FL Statute 782.04) in the shooting death of 17-year-old Jordan Davis, and the attempted murder of three of Davis’ companions, all of whom were also struck by bullets. Dunn claims that he fired in self-defense. The State argues that Dunn killed only because he objected to the youths’ loud music.
State Attorney Angela Corey (pictured above) will be leading the prosecution in the court room, along with Assistant State Attorney John Guy. The defense counsel is Attorney Cory Strolla.
The jury selection process was completed yesterday, with 16 jurors empaneled. Although no video or audio was broadcast during voir dire (in sharp contrast to the Zimmerman trial), thanks to the excellent on-location work of journalist Stephanie Brown of WOKV, we enjoy some understand of the jurors’ profiles and possible perspectives.
Which of the 16 jurors will eventually form the final 12 person jury to deliberate and which will find themselves to be alternates will likely not be disclosed, or even determined, until after closing arguments.
Another notable observation by Ms. Brown: Although many of the jurors have experience shooting and owning firearms, it seems that none of them possess a concealed carry license:
Ms. Brown will also be live tweeting from the court house, using the handle @NewsAndNom.
We will also be live tweeting the trial, but remotely, thanks to the live broadcast to be hosted by @ActionNewsJax. (I’ll post the link to the live feed when it’s made available.)
Andrew F. Branca is an MA lawyer and the author of the seminal book “The Law of Self Defense, 2nd Edition,” available at the Law of Self Defense blog, Amazon.com (paperback and Kindle), Barnes & Noble (paperback and Nook), and elsewhere.
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