Mark O'Mara: Waiting for the verdictBy Mark O'Mara Wed, Feb 12, 2014 @ 7:06 pm | updated Wed, Feb 12, 2014 @ 8:59 pm
A just verdict: What percentage is humanity? What percentage is analysis?The Michael Dunn - Jordan Davis case presents us with yet another unique opportunity to view and review how our criminal justice system works. It’s very easy to argue in the abstract that we are a country that values liberty so much that we are willing to let 100 possibly guilty men go free for fear of incarcerating one innocent man. That’s the essence of “innocent until proven guilty.”
While that is a great and laudable principle, how does it actually work in practice?
Our system is set up such that once Michael Dunn asserts that he was acting in self-defense and presents some evidence to support it, that presumption of innocence (that he was acting in self-defense) stays with him until and unless the state disproves it beyond a reasonable doubt.
Under a strictly analytical view of the law, if the jury has a reasonable doubt as to whether or not Michael Dunn may have acted in self-defense (Did he really think at the moment of the shooting that there was a shotgun in the other car?), then it should be an acquittal. And that’s true even if there are unexplained inconsistencies in Dunn’s presentation -- even if there are conflicts in some of the lesser significant facts, unless, of course, those inconsistencies and conflicts attack Dunn’s credibility so badly that he cannot be believed. This is an analytical perspective on our criminal justice system, and from this perspective, Dunn has a chance for an acquittal.
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