Posted on 02/20/2014 7:12:53 PM PST by digger48
Tonight the Anderson Cooper show on CNN broadcast the interview of a second Dunn trial juror, Juror #8. Identified elsewhere as Creshuna Miles, she was one of two African Americans on the jury, a woman, and the youngest juror at 21 years of age. The interview was conducted by CNN’s Alina Machado.
The interview starts with Machado asking the juror what she thought of Dunn, and the response was frankly surprising (note: all quotes are based on quickly taken hand-written notes; they are substantively accurate but may err on some details):
"I honestly thought Dunn was a good guy. I didn’t think he was bad guy looking to shoot someone, I just think he made bad decisions."
Then Miles became self-contradictory. Asked if she though Dunn was guilty of murder, she said:
"Not guilty as charged, of first degree murder, but that he was guilty of second degree murder."
Strangely, Miles then goes on to say:
"I was convinced, honestly convinced, that he was in self-defense until he chased the car down and started shooting it more. Even if you initially didn’t have the opportunity to take yourself out of the situation, running behind the car and shooting more, that is where you push your limits."
Of course, under the law if Dunn was acting in lawful self-defense in shooting at Davis, he could be no more guilty of second degree murder than he could of first degree murder.
Asked which witness made the greatest impact, Miles indicated it was Rhonda Rouer, Dunn’s fiancé.
She was nervous, trembling, but she still got up there and told the truth.
Asked to describe the deliberations, Miles said:
"The deliberation room was wild, a lot of yelling."
"On the initial vote the jury was “all over the place,” but initially on Friday the vote was 2 and 10 (presumably on the murder charge). They started off Saturday morning with a paryer that each of the jurors would have peace of mind, and that everybody would be open."
Initially when they could not come to agreement on the murder charge they were comfortable in communicating this to Judge Healey. But when he sent them back to deliberations [after the Allen charge], the jury became nervous about what the consequences of being hung on the murder charge might be.
Would the whole case be thrown out? Would they re-try Dunn? Would Corey be satisfied with a hung jury? Would Jordan get justice?
Asked if she thought the jury had messed up, Miles answered “I don’t feel we messed up, we did what we were supposed to do.”
Machado noted that a lot of people were confused by the mixed verdict, not understanding how the jury could convict on the attempted second degree murder charges, but not come back guilty for Jordan Davis’ death. ”What do you tell those people?”
Juror #8 responded:
I tell them that we just could not agree. It was one way or the other, and nobody was willing to move. Hopefully the next group agrees.
By the next group you mean the re-trial?
"Yes, I hope they come back with whatever they come back with. Not saying I hope it’s guilty, not saying I hope it’s not guilty, just hope they can agree. "
The reason she came forward, Miles explained, was all the public protests arguing race as an issue.
"Everybody making this a white and black thing it was not, nobody came up race in the jury."
If not about race, what was it about, for you?
"It was about justice. When I walked into it, I just wanted to bring justice to whoever it was. If Michael Dunn, then to him. If Leland, Kevin, Tommy or Jordan, I wanted to bring justice to them."
What would tell Jordan’s family?
"I would tell them I tried, I tried to fight for their son. Everyone that felt he was guilty, we fought and we fought and we fought."
"I saw the look on his Dad’s face when we came to nothing, and I know it hurts. It’s like thinking you have this wound healed, and somebody slices it open again, because now we have to go through that process all over again."
.....................................
And that was it for the CNN interview of Creshuna Miles. Her segment was then followed by an interview by Anderson Cooper of Lucia McBride and Ron Davis, the parents of Jordan Davis. In that interview, the parents of Davis criticized Miles for not recognizing that race was part of the case.
Sharpton will be screaming race traitor about her.
Dunn was “every man” and it is coming. This crap is going to end real bad. Get a job. Get a life. and turn the damned radio DOWN!! Free Dunn!!
She sounds very thoughtful, certainly moreso than most people serving on juries these days.
I read somewhere that the state prosecutor wants to retry Dunn on the first degree murder charge and this is even after they found him guilty of several other charges.
I thought so too.
I forgot to mention there is video of the interview at the link.
She sounds reasonable to me.
I would have voted guilty on 2nd degree murder.
Dunn acted stupidly. He started the confrontation. Continued attacking even when they tried to drive away.
He was not defending himself. Just a hot head numb nuts.
JMHO and not worth 2 cents.
There were twelve jurors. All twelve were given the same definition of first and second degree murder. All were given the same definition of the applicable law. Ten decided Dunn murdered the kid and two decided he did not. How on earth could they get it wrong?
Otherwise some trigger-happy moron will shoot you.
My impression is that he was guilty too but I wasn’t on the jury and didn’t see the evidence or testimony.
I have always found that jurors really try to do the right thing.
And this woman and the other juror would still have hung the verdict. She thought it was self defense.
I’m probably going to get flamed plenty for this, but the author is full of beans.
“Then Miles became self-contradictory. Asked if she though Dunn was guilty of murder, she said ‘Not guilty as charged, of first degree murder, but that he was guilty of second degree murder.’”
That’s not self-contradictory at all. 1st Degree Murder requires premeditation, 2nd Degree does not. And as for the second degree charge, the juror clearly stated she thought that came about only Dunn chased after the vehicle and continued shooting. Florida self-defense laws justify the use of deadly force when the threat to one’s life or the safety of another is imminent. Like it or not, chasing after, and shooting at, a retreating vehicle is a lot tougher sell under that standard than firing at a vehicle right next to you where you think you saw someone go for a shotgun.
“Of course, under the law if Dunn was acting in lawful self-defense in shooting at Davis, he could be no more guilty of second degree murder than he could of first degree murder.”
Which means absolutely nothing, as the juror felt Dunn exceeded the limits of what the law allows in terms of self-defense. Maybe she was wrong in that view, maybe not. But the author is playing games and twisting words here.
*dons asbestos suit*
Let the flaming begin...
Who did her hair ... Buckwheat?
One thing about the author, Andrew Branca, he seems more than willing to respond to the posters at the site.
Some very good banter in the comment sections and I believe your opinion would be more than welcome there.
I agree.
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