The mother of Jordan Davis said she felt “joy and sorrow” after a Florida jury convicted Michael Dunn of first-degree murder in a retrial on Wednesday.
‘‘Words cannot express our joy, but also our great sorrow, because with the verdicts of all counts being guilty for Michael Dunn, we know that Jordan has received his justice,’’ Davis’ mother Lucia McBath said in a press conference after the verdict.
In November 2012, Michael Dunn, who is white, fired 10 times at a car with a group of black teenagers inside due to what he referred to as their ‘‘thug’’ music outside a convenience store. 17-year-old Jordan Davis, who was in the backseat, was fatally shot.
“We know that Jordan’s life and legacy will live on for others. But, at the same time, we’re very saddened by the life that Michael Dunn will continue to live. We are saddened for his family and for his friends and the community that will continue to suffer by his actions,” said McBath. “But we are very grateful that justice has been served, justice not only for Jordan, but justice for Trayvon [Martin] and justice for all the nameless, faceless children and people that will never have a voice.”
Last October, McBath testified before a Senate panel to amend controversial “Stand Your Ground” gun laws across the country.
Related: Mothers of gun victims speak out against ‘Stand Your Ground’
“The man who killed him opened fire on four unarmed teenagers,” said McBath, on behalf of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, nearly a year after her son’s death.
“This law declares open season on anyone we don’t trust for reasons that we don’t even have to understand. They don’t even have to be true. In essence, it allows any armed citizen to self-deputize themselves and establish their own definition of law and order. It lets one and all define their own criteria for right and wrong, and how justice will be carried out,” she said.
In April, McBath protested outside the NRA annual convention in Indianapolis. “Moms, stand up. Speak out. For the lives that you’ll save very well may be your own,” she said while choking back tears. Earlier this year, Jordan Davis’ parents, McBath and Ron Davis, told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell that they were “shocked” and “dismayed” by the initial verdict on the first-degree murder charge against Dunn. “I would say to him is that not only did you take Jordan’s life, but you took my future. I won’t have grandchildren, I will never have a daughter-in-law,” McBath said. SHOW NOTE: Jordan Davis’s parents, Lucia McBath and Ron Davis, will join MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell Oct. 2 at 10pm ET.
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