Rolling Out spoke briefly with Rev. Al Sharpton on his nationally syndicated radio show “Hour of Power” this morning. He was asked about Stand Your Ground and the jury verdict in the Michael Dunn murder trial:
“Stand Your Ground was brought up in the court during the summation by the defense team in terms of how it is described by the law so it was mentioned. If you listen to the summation by the defense attorney he clearly states by law he [Dunn] was not required to back up he was not required to do anything because he felt that he was under threat, which is the element of the law stand your ground. Clearly it was interpreted in the charge to the jury. Now I don’t know and you don’t know and no one knows what happened in the jury room but I think that clearly the debate was around the law. Let’s give the jury the benefit of the doubt they may have wanted to say initially he was criminally wrong, but they were bound by the law which is why we’ve got to deal with the law.”
