I am an equal opportunity basher. Yes, I have been harsh on my white fellow citizens a lot lately. (And in my past, I have bashed people in my own community). I am sad to say that I couldn't ignore this juror and it pains me to admit that I was wrong about what to expect from the black jurors in this case. I overestimated at least one of these jurors. Now, she is not a total nitwit because she still had enough sense to find him at least guilty in some aspect relatedto the actual murder. But she clearly lacks enough sound reasoning that would have been needed to persuade the holdout white jurors that voted against convicting this guy of anything related to Jordan Davis' murder. Dumbness knows no discrimination.
So this juror Miles, thinks race was never a factor, felt that she thought Dunn was a good guy, and he believed he acted in self defense at least on the first few shots. Yet, if she thought he believed he acted in self defense, why did she think he was guilty of second degree? unfortunately the CNN interviewer once against leaves us hanging with unasked questions.
"I never once thought about, oh, this was a black kid. This was a white guy," Juror No. 8 Creshuna Miles told CNN on Thursday.
Oh really? Not even when Dunn's fiancée said he was talking about thug music as they drove in. Not even when he kept referring to them as gangsters even after he found out they weren't? I understand the jurors didn't hear all we heard. But still, come on. This is stuff she should have processed from the testimony she did hear.
Miles, 21, said she believes Dunn is guilty of murder, but not as charged. She thinks he was guilty of second-degree murder.
OK, I am not fully sold, but I would have happily taken that verdict. Yet, we still do not know if the 3 jurors were willing to go for manslaughter or acquittal. And we never find out that if she felt like this was only 2nd degree, why did the jury split 9-3 on 1st degree and she wasn't one of the three?
"I think he is a good guy. I don't think he hates everybody. I don't think he walks around wanting to shoot everybody. I think that he made bad decisions," she said.
DOH!!! Geeez, I sure hope she is still referring to these thoughts to simulate her time on the jury and not what she learned after she left the jury room. I don't know why the CNN person never bothered to ask her if she still held these thoughts or were these her thoughts back in the jury room? Because if she still thinks these thoughts, she is a moron of the highest order(not that I thought his testimony painted him as some good guy either).
"I was honestly convinced that he was in self-defense until he chased the car down and started shooting more," Miles said. "Even if initially you didn't have the opportunity to take yourself out of the situation to stop, running behind the car and shooting more, that's where you completely push your limits."
Actually, not the most moronic statement I have heard on this case as even TV experts have been spouting this nonsense. But still, does not excuse her passiveness of thought. She gives full credibility to the fiancée's testimony and so for her to believe that this guy was truly in fear, the only thing she had to believe that was his word and no other evidence on the scene of a gun. Yet, his fiancée contradicted him and Miles herself says later that it was a big deal to her and that the fiancée was brave to contradict Dunn despite knowing she would get in trouble. Dunn never called the cops. She never talks about what the jurors thought about Dunn using the same claim that he was in fear of his life even at the hotel , yet not a single action of his over there gives the slightest credence to that claim. And why shouldn't such a claim cast doubts about his word that he felt the same fear at the scene? I blame the interviewer for not getting the juror to shed any light over the more damaging testimony.
What did jurors think of the testimony of the three surviving black victims? What did they think of the neutral observer Steven Smithwho claimed that Dunn said "you wll not speak to me like that" not too long before shooting them?
Defense attorney Cory Strolla asked Smith if maybe Dunn had said, "You're not going to kill me." Smith said Dunn did not say that. He heard Dunn shout, "You're not going to talk to me like that."
Smith said he heard Dunn shouting to a female friend to get in the car.
And why doesn't CNN try to use their reach to interview jurors in other FL based self defense or even, Stand Your Ground, cases where the defendants were found guilty and ask them what "reasonable" fear means and compare that to these jurors belief of what "reasonable" fear means.