from the league of conservation voters. i'll be in nebraska talking to the land owners coming up this friday. we'll have a report all next week on the "ed show." that's "ed show." i'm ed schultz. "politicsnation" with reverend al sharpton starts right now. good evening, rev. good evening, ed. and thanks to you for tuning in. tonight's lead, the injustice of the stand your ground law. we have now sent a signal that you can be killed and your life will not be acknowledged. over the weekend, a florida jury could not agree on the first-degree murder charge against michael dunn for the shooting death of 17-year-old jordan davis. the jury did find dunn guilty on three counts of second degree attempted murder of the three other teens inside that car. and one count of firing into the vehicle carrying jordan davis and the three friends. but they could not agree on the most serious charge of

first-degree murder. the judge declared a mistrial on that charge and prosecutors intend to try it again. now, many will say dunn may be going to jail for life anyway, but that's not the point. the point is the message it sends to both potential shooters and to our kids. this is about the value of jordan's life, a teenager who would have been celebrating his 19th birthday yesterday. dunn said he saw jordan with a gun, but that story wasn't backed up by any other witness or any other evidence in the case. his fiancee said she was never told about a gun. dunn fled the scene after the shooting. he went back to his hotel and ordered a pizza. but we have a dead 17-year-old and a hung jury. how is that possible? we don't know what happened inside that jury room, but it

came likely down to florida's self-defense law that includes stand your ground, saying if you feel reasonably threatened, and the person isn't engaged in unlawful activity in a place they have a right to be, they have no duty to retreat. a right to stand their ground, and can meet force with force, including deadly force. if they reasonably believe it is necessary. the trial sends a chilling message to parents that you can shoot first and ask questions later. that's not justice, and this law needs to change. back with us tonight, former prosecutor faith jenkins, florida criminal defense lawyer ken padowitz, and legal analyst lisa bloom. i want to hear from all of you first, starting with you, lisa. your reaction to the verdict.

>> well we got justice for the three young men who by the grace of god survived this incident, even though bullets were whizzing by their heads in those three attempted murder convictions. we got justice for the car because he was convicted of shooting into a car. but we did not get justice for jordan davis, the 17-year-old unarmed kid who was -- who was killed by michael dunn. and so i think a retrial is very important. i think it's important that these prosecutors learn from their mistakes. we all make mistakes. the only problem is when we don't learn from them. we see that happening with angela corey especially losing the zimmerman case, being unable to get a murder conviction against this man for shooting an unarmed teenager. this should be a second-degree murder murder trial the next time around with six people on the jury. it will be easier to get a consensus. we've got second-degree attempted murder convictions for the three young men. let's get a second-degree murder conviction now for taking the life of jordan davis.

>> all right. ken, your reaction to the verdict. >> well, justice was not completely served here. we have a stand your ground law in florida which trips up juries. it creates violence out on the streets. it places our young men and women in danger. and when it comes time for justice at a courtroom and a trial, the stand your ground law is inserted into the law, and it makes it more difficult for juries to understand how to apply this law and how to get to justice. when the evidence is as clear as it is in this case, and this was a very strong, very clear second-degree murder case. when you have a case like that, and then you insert this law that makes it very difficult for jurors to apply and to understand and be able to not be confused, you lead to problems where you can't get a verdict and you get a hung jury. and then on top of that, a prosecution team where the jury makes the same mistakes. it was clearly a case of being

overcharged. it was clearly a second-degree murder case in my mind, and the time and energy should have been spent on explaining to the jury the application of the second-degree murder instructions. and that really was not done here. enough time wasn't spent on that. they placed all of their forces on first-degree, and we ended up here now with a partial verdict. and now the taxpayers of the state of florida have to have this case retried while the poor family has to sit through another case. >> faith? >> i think the evidence in this case was really overwhelming and compelling against michael dunn, and there should have been a conviction for the murder charge against jordan davis. and so for me, when justice isn't served, i really have to look at the system. and there are some larger issues that have to be addressed or history will continue to repeat itself. one, we have to look at the continued cultural demonization of young black men in this country and how that impacts juries, and when they are the victims of crime, how is that

jurors aren't able to see them in that way? they always think they are the initial aggressors. two, the law you talked about, stand your ground, and how this law is encouraging people to take the law into their own hands, based on their own fear. and a person can have a true and real and honest fear, but it could be based on a completely false and erroneous presumption about another person. and then they're taking to it trial. and the jurors are supposed to determine if their fear is reasonable. and then the third thing is jury selection. i think we have to look at the jury selection process and how demographics may a role in our jury selection process, and how people, implicit biases are not exposed during the process and how that could impact their decision in cases like this where i think the evidence was crystal clear. >> now, ken, you talked about and faith just spoke about it as well about the complexity of the stand your ground laws when

things need to be dealt. it's no secret i've taken this position for some time now. these laws in 23 states need to be repealed around stand your ground. what was very telling to me is even the judge in this case admitted how confusing the self-defense law is. and even though he read to it the jury when they asked for a reread, that portion of the jury, watch what he said. this is the judge in that trial. >> he wants me to read the first paragraph of justifiable use of deadly force? >> yes, your honor. >> which is an incomplete instruction. and i do not want to go through that whole justifiable use of deadly force instruction because that is the most confusing thing -- one of the most confusing things i read to them. >> one of the most confusing things i read to them. now, he had already read it. he would not read it again. it was not clarified. here you have the judge at the

trial saying it's a very confusing to the jury. so why do we have something on the books like that? and how do we sit there and allow this jury who the judge says may be confused. he had already read it one time. make a decision when you have a young man that lost his life. >> well, that's exactly it, reverend. shame on the state of florida. the law is confusing in every criminal case to begin with. and all lawyers, whether they be prosecutors or defense attorneys are well aware of this. but when you hamstring the prosecution with this self-defense law that basically confuses the jurors even further, confusion leads to reasonable doubt. as a defense attorney, i'm going to use the law in representing my clients to the best of my ability. but the prosecution shouldn't be hamstrung. they already have a very high burden, which they should in a free society such as ours that they have to prove our case beyond a reasonable doubt, and

that the defendant is presumed innocent. but you should not have laws that are so confusing that when the jury goes back into the jury room and tries to apply the law to the evidence, you're going to have a lot of misinterpretation. you're going to have a lot of confusion. and confusion leads to reasonable doubt. so it's a problem for the state of florida. if you want to enforce the laws, you want to get rid of this law. >> now, lisa, you had talked about earlier this law with me. you had talked about how it was in this case the defendant that seemed to almost tell her some of the things that he said when he took the stand that fit the elements of this law. let me give you an example. >> i was trying to get her to relax and stop hyperventilating and calm down, explaining to her that it was self-defense, that we were not in trouble with the

police. we might be in trouble with the local gangsters, but not, you know -- i didn't do anything wrong. >> and she, as you said, was a wreck, right? >> yes, she was. >> because she knew that you had just fired into a car with human beings inside? >> she doesn't understand self-defense. he is showing me a gun and he is threatening me. i thought i was going to be killed. it was self-defense. i had no choice but to defend myself. it was life or death. i'd already been afraid for my life, but now the fear was imminent. >> i had no choice but to defend myself, which fits elements of stand your ground. i had no choice. it was self defendants. she didn't understand self-defense. talking about his fiancee,

because they were questioning him about his fiancee was a wreck. this is his reaction. she didn't understand self-defense, meaning he does. and if he understood the self-defense law, he was possibly creating his defense there. she didn't understand. and it's interesting. he never told her he had a gun when he was saying to her you don't understand the self-defense law. he left out a little object like the other guy had a gun, the young man had a gun. jordan davis had a gun. he left that out while he was explaining to her they were not in trouble with the police, that she didn't understand self-defense. you would have thought if he really thought he saw a gun, he would have brought that up at that point. >> right. so of course she didn't understand that it was self-defense, because what she saw was an argument over loud music. he takes out a gun. shoots into a car, and then doesn't even mention this imaginary magical gun that only he saw.

none of the other people in the car, none of the other people at the scene, not of the bystanders who rushed to try to save the life of jordan davis saw. only he saw that gun. and yet she doesn't understand why it's self-defense. so i think that's evidence of michael dunn's arrogance. but it also points to something else that i think you're getting at. and very much like george zimmerman. i michael dunn understand the law of self-defense. well, you know what? a lot of people in florida do understand the law of self-defense because stand your ground has been talked about a great deal. and they understand that under the prior law, you had to prove that there was no possible way that you could safely retreat before you take that gun out and shoot it. that law is now gone. stand your ground is now the law, and you don't have to retreat. he gets in his car to get the gun. he takes the time to open the glove compartment, take it out, unholster it. he could have used that time to step on the pedal and get the heck out of there. a life would have been saved that would have been required under the prior law. no longer required under stand

your ground. >> and every shot he had to pull the trigger, and there was even a pause. faith, let me ask you this quickly. we talked last week about race in this. and the application of stand your ground when it's a difference in race. when you look at the fact this same prosecutor did not allow stand your ground for marissa alexander, a black female who was sentenced to 20 years in jail for a warning shot that didn't shoot or hit anyone, didn't harm anyone, she was prosecuted. couldn't use stand your ground, got 20 years from the same prosecutor. yet the same prosecutor missed two convictions now. where is race in this now that we've seen the verdict, and where is it going forward to a retrial? >> well, the racial animus in this case was clear from the very beginning when michael dunn's fiancee got on the witness stand and said he didn't like this thug music. so it started there from the very beginning, and all of his actions follow through i think on some very clear racial biases

and stereotypes and frankly prejudice that this man possessed. and dwloong that was clearly set forth in the trial. but it was sort of one of those underlying issues. we've got to figure out how we address these issues as prosecutors, because i know that on the one hand, it's a very polarizing issue for the jury. you sort of insert that and for some juries, they don't believe that racism is still an issue. or they don't want to be confronted with it and have to address it. so prosecutors sort of dance around it sometimes. but in a case like this where this man has been so explicit in his letters about how he feels about black people, he even said he didn't want black jurors on this the juror for this very reason because he knew he went through that narrative in his testimony. going forward, i think we have to look at that in jury selection and how we address that issue going forward. >> well, we'll talk more about him and his opinions of race coming up. faith jenkins, ken padowitz and lisa bloom, thank you for your time tonight. . >> thank you. >> thank you.

coming up, fighting to repeal the unjust stand your ground law. congresswoman corrine brown was inside the courtroom and joins me next. plus, the race factor. michael dunn's language of gangsters and thugs and new questions about the state case. plus, trayvon martin's parents speak out about the verdict. plus, who was jordan davis? we remember a young man who would have been celebrating his 19th birthday over the weekend. stay with us. whoa! sweet mother of softness.

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it's a law that permits someone to shoot first and ask questions later. we cannot stand for it. congresswoman corrine brown of florida was in the courtroom every day. she's fighting to repeal the law. that's next.

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the mess trial of michael dunn on first-degree murder charges has thrust the debate over shoot first law back into the spotlight once again. the controversial stand your ground law says if you reasonably feel threatened, there is no duty to retreat or withdraw before using deadly force to defend yourself. but i believe this law is emboldening people into confrontation. florida was the first state to add the stand your ground language to its books in 2005,

and it quickly spread across the country. over 20 states. but dunn's trial is the latest in florida re-igniting calls for change to its self-defense law. there were calls for change when george zimmerman was acquitted in the killing of trayvon martin, and it came up again in florida, again when marissa alexander was sentenced to 20 years after firing what she says was a warning shot. her husband had a history of domestic abuse. yet she wasn't allowed to claim stand your ground. she is currently awaiting a new trial. so that's three high profile cases in florida alone. this law is dangerous and frightening, and we must fight to change it. joining me now is congresswoman corrine brown, democratic of florida and a tireless fighter to repeal stand your ground. congresswoman, thanks for being here. >> thank you. and thank you for your leadership.

>> you were in the courtroom. >> yes. >> for jury deliberations. how does this dunn case affect the fight against stand your ground? >> well, the point is regardless of the outcome, it was always a feeling that we must change this law and we all must go to tallahassee and change it there. because even when you talk about the jury deliberation, part of it was in the instructions to the jury. stand your ground is a part of the instruction. whether it was discussed or not. it was in the zimmerman case. and so basically, it is part of the jury's instruction. and we must deal with it. it's too broad. it's a sloppy law. it says that you can shoot and kill. you can start the fight, and then say i felt threatened. that's bull.

i mean, it's just unacceptable. >> congresswoman, a study of race in stand your ground cases showed there is a clear division between white and black victims. the tampa bay times found that in 200 cases, people who killed a black person walked 73% of the time. those who killed a white person went free only 59% of the time. and this is whether it's blacks killing blacks. you know how hard we fight that as well in our own community. but this data is startling and is grounds for review just on the application based on race of stand your ground. >> absolutely. that's true. but it embolds people to do things they ordinarily would not do. for example, texting. so you are texting now. and so i feel like, well, i feel

threatened so i kill you. it sends the wrong message. and it's not a message we want for our children. it's not a message we want for our community, for our state, and it started in florida 2005. and what we need to do is repeal it. it's like a cancer and it's spreading to 22 -- 24 different states. i now, the florida statute, so people understand it, the florida statute on stand your ground allows a person to use deadly force if they are not engaged in unlawful activities or in a place that they have a right to be, they have no duty to retreat. they have the right to stand their ground and meet force with force, including deadly force when they reasonably believe it is necessary. >> right. >> but who decides what is reasonable, congresswoman? >> but the main thing is you

started the fight. >> right. >> you approach me. and i take up my gun. i shoot you, and i feel threatened. i mean, that's my story afterwards. that's my story, and i'm sticking to it. there is something wrong with that. >> and sticking to the story, both the zimmer case, which as you said stand your ground was part of the summations and the defense, and now this case, two very high profile cases, no conviction in either, you have a case of marissa alexander, same county as this case that we are dealing with now. and that prosecutor who you confronted by the way denied and fought for her having the right to use stand your ground. she is sentenced to 20 years. not only didn't kill anybody, doesn't even shoot anybody. shot a warning shot at her husband who had threatened her life and has a history of domestic violence.

>> and not only that, when it was discussed, i was told, well, someone could have gotten hurt. could have. we're talking about cases where people got killed. and the person who did it walked. it's something wrong with that process. >> congresswoman -- >> i mean, no one can understand it. and we must change the law. >> well, we're going to stay on this, and we're going to keep fighting. thank you so much, congresswoman corrine brown for your time tonight. >> thank you. ahead, did the prosecutor mishandle the case against michael dunn? new questions tonight about whether angela corey repeated her mistakes from the zimmerman trial. also, what happened to those racially charged letters that dunn wrote from jail? why weren't they used at trial? the answer might surprise you. plus, marching for justice in peace. what young men of color are

feeling in states where stand your ground is the law of the land. stay with us.

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liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? what was going on inside that jury room for more than 30 hours of deliberation? since the verdict came down over the weekend, we haven't heard from any of the 12 jurors. joining me now is larry hannon, a courts reporter from the florida times union. he was in the courtroom every day of the dunn trial. thank you for joining us tonight, larry. >> thanks for having me. >> larry, what was your sense about where the jury was headed? >> early on, i thought that we were going towards a conviction on all accounts for the highest counts. but then we began to see irritation among some jury members. at first thame seem irritated at the defense attorney. but later on they seemed to get

annoyed at what some of the prosecution was doing. and by the time we got to jury deliberations, there was a lot of talk that we were going to have a hung jury, and that's pretty much what happened. it seems as though there were some pretty bad deadlocks among the jurors. >> you reported several jurors seemed near tears. how did that strike you? >> it was unusual. i've never seen that in the time i covered courts. but when we came back on friday night, the jurors asked the judge could they deadlock on one count and have a verdict on the others. at that point i saw one juror who seemed to be fighting back crying at that time. another one who had very red eyes, suggesting that she had been crying earlier. and we had a third juror who just seemed incredibly angry to the point he just kept staring at the ceiling and refused to make eye contact with anyone else, which suggested to me there had been a lot of fights in that jury room. >> what happens now to michael dunn moving forward, larry? >> his sentencing hearing is going to be march -- the week of march 24th.

he'll be sentenced for the attempted murders and the firing of the bullets into the car. after that, we're going to set a new trial date. and we don't know when that is going to be. a lot will depend on whether his current attorney stays with the case or not. dunn is out of money, so it possible he will withdraw and the court will replace him. >> larry hannon from the florida times, thank you for your time. >> thank you. ahead, new questions surrounding the prosecutor, the same prosecutor in the george zimmerman trial. were mistakes made? next. instead of paying too much for an ipad, i got the surface 2. first of all, it comes with office and outlook. then, with free skype calls to phones in over 60 countries, i can talk to my cousins any time. and then, i got 200 gigs of cloud storage -- free -- so i can get my photos and stuff almost anywhere. others charge for that. surface is such a great deal. i feel like i should tell somebody. hey!

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anger and disappointment at florida state attorney angela corey after the michael dunn mistrial. this is the third high profile case that corey's office has prosecuted, dominated by controversial issues of self-defense, including stand your ground. her office failed to get a conviction in the george zimmerman trial. she wouldn't accept a stand your ground defense from marissa alexander, the woman who says she fired a warning shot to scare off her abusive husband. and now a mistrial in the first-degree murder charge against michael dunn. angela corey says her office will move forward with the retrial. >> so retrying the case is something that we've all had to do, and we will continue to have to do, and we'll give it the same full attention. we don't back off having to retry. >> they don't back off. but after the mistrial, many

people are asking if corey mishandled the case. and some are also asking why letters that dunn wrote from jail weren't talked about in court. in one letter he wrote, quote, i'm not really prejudiced against race, but i have no use for certain cultures. this gangster rap, ghetto-talking thug culture that certain segments of society flock to is intolerable. dunn also wrote, quote, i just got off the phone with you, and we were talking about how racist the blacks are up here. the more time i am exposed to these people, the more prejudiced against them i become. these comments are explosive. they generated a lot of passionate debate. but the jurors never got to see those letters. joining me now, a former u.s. attorney kendall coffey and criminal defense attorney john buroughs.

thank you both for being here. >> thank you, rev. >> thanks, reverend. >> kendall, the judge ruled on these dunn letters just before the trial. he said, quote, the comments are not admissible and irrelevant because they came after the shooting. why did he make that ruling? and how did that affect the prosecution's case? >> well, the judge certainly wasn't trying to sanitize michael dunn. he was trying to minimize the risk that an appeals court, after everything that would happen during one or maybe two trials might reverse it, because there are some appellate decisions which seem to indicate that comments, even racist comments made in some separation of time after the fact can't be brought in. so the judge is trying to get it right and have an error-free trial. i think without the judge intending to do so, to some extent, he pulled the rug out from under the prosecution on that issue because the prosecution had valuable extremely on-point evidence that they couldn't use.

and i'm not criticizing the judge. he may have been correctly following florida cases. but then it made it that much more difficult for the prosecution to do what they needed to do, which is thoroughly discredit michael dunn's motive. because when dunn took the stand from the perspective of some jurors, this became a one-witness trial. if they believed dunn, if he came across okay, that could be enough to create a reasonable doubt, at least in the minds of some jurors. i think on retrial the prosecution is going to focus heavily on the cross-examination of michael dunn. they have to do more damage to him than they did in the first trial. >> beside the letter, dunn's phone calls were also considered irrelevant. here is what he said on one phone call to his fiancee. >> so being in a room by myself kind of sucks, but i guess it'd would be better than being in a room with them animals. >> well, you know, they probably wouldn't think too highly about what is going on.

and so it is best. but i can only imagine. >> now, it's better than being in a room with those animals. couldn't the prosecution when they were cross examining -- when they were direct examining the fiancee, who was their witness, when he said he never mentioned a gun, couldn't they have played this phone call with him and her from jail saying even on this call he never mentioned a gun, and let them also hear the kinds of thoughts this man had by putting this into the trial? >> no. the judge would not have allowed that in. that statement would have been more prejudicial than probative. they could have gotten easily in the statement that he did not mention he had a gun because he asked that question earlier. so that wouldn't have been an impeaching kind of statement. the judge was very clear that you can't put in these kinds of statements after the fact unless they go directly to the issue at

hand. these are not admissions. they're verbal tirades. certainly they would be prejudicial and they would have been help to the prosecution. but the judge already ruled after the fact they would not come in. the only way they would come into evidence is during a cross-examination of mr. dunn he makes some statement that opens the door. and that's what the prosecution should have been trying to examine him for purposes of opening the door to some comment that he makes and suggests that he has this great mind, that he is not prejudiced, he doesn't have any ill will toward anyone and the other statements could have come into evidence. short of, that the prosecution was kind of hamstrung in many ways from preventing that from coming in. >> now, you know, kendall, prosecutors did try to bring up inconsistencies of dunn referring to thug music. let's watch the testimony starting with his fiancee. >> did the defendant say anything about the music when he parked the car next to the red car? >> yes. >> and what did the defendant say? >> i hate that thug music. >> and what was your response to

the defendant? >> i said, yes, i know. >> you don't recall saying i hate that thug music? >>. no if i would have said anything, i would have called it rap crap. >> were the prosecutors there trying to show that he thought jordan davis was a thug? >> well, for sure they were trying to develop that point and get it across. and give them some credit. they had a very strong contradiction between what michael dunn was saying and what his own fiancee was saying. not only about that, but the question whether dunn told her that he had in fact claimed he saw a gun. so they did a good job i think by all accounts up until the verdict came back. there was a view that they were doing a very good job. they lost or failed to get a conviction on the central account. so it's hard to ask what they could have done better. >> do you think they were doing a good job? >> when that opening came and he said he didn't use it, the question who have been said well haven't you done that or used that term before or later? i think that would have been an opening to explore that he has

used words of that kind before. and that would go to impeaching. the prosecution sort of was limited to some extent by not, in my view, they didn't do a good job of explaining the stand your ground law and self-defense, to the extent that jurors were confused about it. that's the prosecutor's job to make it clear. and they did not do that. and they didn't deal with the question of reasonable conduct and how you cannot be subjectively set your own standard. and not have it -- and make that be the law of the land or the defense. it has to be reasonable. and they had ability and they had responsibility to determine what reasonableness was in light of the fact of what the facts were. so they didn't do a good job and explain the jury instruction and self-defense in stand your ground, nor did they do a good job i think on the question of reasonableness and why it wasn't reasonable for what he did. so there is a lot to be desired from that point. >> kendall, there was also some who felt the prosecutors didn't do enough to humanize the victim, jordan davis.

here is what his father said, for example, about his son on saturday. >> i thank you all for seeing that we as parents were good parents to jordan, and that he was a good kid. he wasn't allowed to be said in the courtroom that he was a good kid, but we'll say it. he was a good kid. >> it wasn't allowed to be said in the courtroom. a lot of people felt that they should have spent more time, kendall, humanizing and giving a profile of who this kid was to the jury that lost his life. >> well, that's a fair comment. and the prosecutors went into this, reverend, with an overwhelmingly strong case. a very weak self-defense case. and now that they have seen that maybe it wasn't quite enough, i think they're going to go back, find the most effective possible way to cross-examine dunn now that they know word for word what his story is going to be. and i think issues like letting his jury know all about who

jordan was, that's very important too. so you're going to see some changes. and i don't think you're going to see a hung jury next time. >> here is what i think, reverend. on terms of humanizing him, jordan, they could have easily done that once this person put into evidence that he saw jordan davis had a gun of some kind. he could also have put in evidence that he didn't have a gun. the mom, the dad could have testify head didn't have a gun, didn't know anything about guns. therefore to put that into perspective that he wasn't a person who carried firearms. >> well, i think a lot was left to be desired. kendall coffey and john burris, thanks for your time tonight. >> thank you. >> coming up, how a stunned community is making sense of the michael dunn verdict, and marching to protect our kids. that's next. and i'm michelle. and we own the paper cottage. it's a stationery and gifts store. anything we purchase for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. so you can manage your business expenses and access them online instantly with the game changing app from ink. we didn't get into business to spend time managing receipts,

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and responsive dedicated support meets your needs, and eases your mind. centurylink. your link to what's next. seven months after the shock of the george zimmerman verdict, many americans, many are grappling with another jury's controversial decision. after mistrial was declared on the first-degree murder charge against michael dunn, people marched many peaceful protest to the courthouse. all weekend marchers were demanding justice for jard. >> what do we want? >> justice! >> when do we want it? >> now! >> what do we want? >> justice! >> when do we want it? >> now. >> i have a 4-year-old son.

13 years from now, 14 years from now, this could actually be my son. >> michael dunn should the the time. >> someone lost their life. where is the justice for jordan? >> where is the justice for jordan? that's the question that echoed across the state and the country all weekend. joining me now is bishop rudolph mckissy, senior pastor. bishop mckissick, threw for coming on the show tonight. >> hey, reverend al. you know i'm always glad to be with you. >> you passed a major church in the african american community there in jacksonville. you've been there in the courtroom. you're there with the family when the verdict came in. as a community, where do we go from here in seeking justice? >> well, i think we've got to balance the marching with some methodology. we've got to realize first of all that we've got to do more

than just be angry. we have to have anger, but let that anger be productive. we've got to change some of the laws that are in place. vote some of the persons out who put the laws in. and we've got to do something to make sure our young men understand that there is nothing wrong with who they are, and that it's someone else's problem who can't handle them being authentically who they are. so we have to make sure we do all of those things. the marching is good. the protesting is good. but beyond that, we've got to do something that is productive to change some of the laws that people are using to kill our black boys. >> now, a 13-year-old in jacksonville, florida, told a local paper, and i'm going to read you the quote. have i taken off my hoodie. i usually wear it in the stores, but i've taken it off. and i don't really listen to music. i don't really listen to music loud, but i look around.

i watch my back while i'm walk do you think the streets. this weekend you talked to a number of teenaged boys in your congregation. what are they feeling, bishop? >> the same thing. i had a group of young men in my office that came down to the pulpit with me at the beginning of the service, and they're all feeling the same thing. i have a 15-year-old son who likes to wear hoodies. and i'm not going to make my son feel like this is the new white fountain, black bathroom, white bathroom, black bathroom situation. that's what it's setting up to be. and it's sad that in this day and time, we still hate differences instead of celebrating differences. our young men now, and my fear is, reverend al, that now you're going to see young men arming themselves to protect themselves. we don't want that that's not what after. >> we denounced that clearly.

>> absolutely. >> and one of the things i have respected is that all of these marches and rallies have been totally nonviolent. >> and that's -- >> you know have i some very hard feelings about a lot of the language and self-hate that is expressed. but that should not be used an an excuse to kill people and walk away. >> no. and that's one of the things we want to put across to our young men. that, you know, you are not to react because that just gives them more fodder to talk about. you do not need to be angry to the point of thinking you have to protect yourself like that. while that is a fear, that is something as pastors that we want to make sure we come against, that we begin now to put together, my dear friend dr. john gunns has a wonderful platform save our sons. we're going to use that form will here in the city to talk

about policy issues, mentoring issues, educational issues. and then, reverend al, we've got to bring whites to the table. >> right. >> to really have an honest conversation about race relations without them calling us disingeneral -- insightful because we bring things up. that's disingenuous. come to the table. face it so we can fix it. >> and work it together. you know, the parents of trayvon martin released a statement supporting ron andalus lucia, t parents of this young man. it's hard to believe the timing, but george zimmerman is making the rounds, talking about his case. he says his case was a miscarriage of justice. watch this. >> what was the miscarriage of justice? >> the fact that two law enforcement entities stated that i had acted within the laws of our nation in self-defense. >> you don't think it was about the law? >> i know it wasn't, yes.

>> and what does that make you? >> like a scapegoat. >> a scapegoat for? >> the government, the president, the attorney general. >> they would be scapegoating you why? just to show they're taking a position on something that matters to loot of people? >> i don't know what they're thinking or whoa they're thinking it. all i know is they're doing it. i don't know what agenda they have. >> he is a scapegoat. >> wow. >> again, we see the defendant here saying what is going on here like he was in disbelief he got any convictions. >> right. >> it seemed no one understands the value of these young boys' life. i'm going to have to leave there it. good to see you. >> good see you, sir. >> we work together in national action network for many years. >> absolutely. >> keep the peace but keep fighting for justice. bishop rudolph mckissick, thank you for your time this evening. >> thank you, reverend al. coming up, remembering jordan davis. we hear from his parents ahead.

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his mother says that at dinner one day earlier, he said the grace, giving thanks to god for his friends and family. a day later, he was dead. jordan was like most teenagers. he liked football and basketball. he was a high school senior, and he talked about maybe joining the military after graduation. his mother says she was put on bed rest for eight months so she could give birth to a healthy baby. later she faced breast cancer down twice, never thinking she'd outlive her son. >> i was telling my husband every time we go by the funeral home that i wanted to be buried in, i'd say, you know, when my time comes, this is where i want you to take me, you know. and this is what i want played at my funeral. and this is where i want to be buried. i never imagined it would be my child.

>> what many of us seem to forget is that these are real human beings. yeah, they're bad kids, though clearly this kid jordan, by all accounts was not that. but we fight to make them rise to a good standard. but we can't meet them with a double standard. their lives matter, and when they're taken, people must be held accountable. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. calling the cops. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews from washington. let me start tonight with this. who are you going to call? you're stuck in traffic, can't get to work, the hours pass, you are going nuts. then a policeman asks you to lower your window, aou