The parents of Jordan Davis, the Marietta teenager shot and killed during a 2012 argument over loud music in the parking lot of a Florida convenience store, said Wednesday that they hold no animosity toward the jurors who this weekend were unable to reach a verdict on whether defendant Michael Dunn murdered their son.
“We know that the jurors, when they walked in that room to deliberate, we know without a doubt that they were posed with a very delicate but a very profound decision that they had to make,” Davis’ mother, Lucia McBath, said during an interview on Good Morning America.
“We believe, absolutely, with all our hearts, that they did everything that they could to come to what they believe was the most just decision,” McBath told ABC’s Robin Roberts, just moments after hearing from one of the jurors that the jury was split 9 to 3, with the majority in favor of convicting Dunn of first-degree murder.
The jury convicted Dunn, a 47-year-old software developer, of attempted murder for shooting into the car filled with teenagers after the argument.
“We do now know that they were torn, but they’ve done the best they can with the tools that they had,” McBath said.
Davis’ father, Ronald Davis, blamed the jury’s instructions on Florida’s “stand your ground” law, which he called “very confusing.”
“I think that those laws have to be rewritten and I’m going to be one that’s going to continue to fight to have ‘stand your ground’ laws rewritten,” Ron Davis said.
The family’s attorney, John Phillips, blamed something else for the mistrial.
“It was a well-presented case, [prosecutors] did a good job, but we’re in a situation in America where the young black boy doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt,” Phillips told Roberts. “And the white businessman gets the benefit of the doubt.”
Davis said that while he still would like to see Dunn found guilty of killing his son, “people don’t realize that the justice in the court system is not the ultimate justice.”
“God gives you justice,” Davis said. “Justice on Earth is one justice, but always look to God for the ultimate justice.”
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