Stand-Your-Ground Case: Florida Man Found Guilty of Manslaughter in Parking Lot Shooting
CABRERA: News Weekend. A "guilty" verdict in the Florida's controversial stand-your-ground manslaughter trial involving a deadly dispute over a handicap parking space. The jury convicted 49-year-old Michael Drejka in the killing of an unarmed black man named Markeis McGlockton outside of Clearwater, Florida convenience store. Watch this.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As the charge of manslaughter, we the jury find as follows as to the defendant in this case. The defendant is guilty of manslaughter as charged.</s>CABRERA: McGlockton's family wept as that verdict was read. Drejka claimed he acted in self-defense when he shot and killed McGlockton last summer during an argument over a handicap parking spot. Drejka is set to be sentenced now on October 10th. He faces up to 30 years in prison. Joining us now is CNN Legal Analyst, Joey Jackson, and defense attorney. And Joey, I'm just curious. What's your reaction and what message do you think the jury was trying to send?</s>JOEY JACKSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY & CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Ana, good to see you. The reaction is it's the right call. And I think the jury first messages that he is guilty and that there was no way around it in this case. And the second thing is that you certainly can't use stand-your- ground as a license to kill. Certainly, stand-your-ground is significant because it says you don't have a duty to retreat. That is, if you are in a lawful place and you believe that you're in immediate fear of death or serious bodily injury, you could act in kind. But I think here it went too far. So, quickly, Ana, there's really three steps I think they went through. The first is what I just mentioned. And that is, was he in - that is Drejka who was convicted of manslaughter - immediate fear of death or seriously bodily injury? That's the first question. You look at the videotape. You notice that the victim is retreating. They answer that question, no. The second question is, was the force used, the shooting, in any way proportionate to the threat that was posed? Person, who was the victim, was unarmed in this case, not running towards him, as Drejka would have the police believe during the interrogation. He, in fact, was moving away. And so, therefore, look, not only was he not in immediate fear, but there was no sign of a weapon or anything else. So how could you say a shot is proportionate? And the third thing, real quickly, Ana, is reasonableness. The jury looks at the reasonableness of the conduct of the defendant. In this case, found it to be unreasonable and therefore convicted of manslaughter. Right call, without question.</s>CABRERA: And yes, Drejka was not initially arrested. The Sheriff believing that he was acting in self-defense, saying, "He felt after being slammed to the ground that the next thing was that he was going to be further attacked by McGlockton." Now, Drejka never took the stand in his own defense. Was that a mistake by his defense team?</s>JACKSON: Well, two things, Ana. First thing, it's an excellent point you raise. It goes from the Sheriff not arresting in light of the fact that he says that he's justified. Remember, this a sheriff who's also a lawyer who makes that determination. The defense wanted him to testify, and the judge said, no, I'm not going to allow him to opine as to why he felt this way. And so that's going to be an issue that they'll raise on appeal. In terms of ultimately him testifying, here's the point. He did testify. He testified in as much as the prosecution showed his interrogation tape. So, no, he didn't get on the stand, but the prosecution evaluated what he was saying when he was asked by the police. And interestingly, he convicted himself. Why? Because the police asked him, hey, if he wasn't running towards you - right, and I'm paraphrasing it in essence - then, would you still have shot? No, I would not have. Well, what if we told you that in fact he was stepping away? What would you say about that? I would disagree. Now, mind you, that's what he said. But you look at the videotape, the videotape told another story. The defense is also appealing on the grounds that they said the judge allowed it to be played in slow-mo, which I also think is the right call. Right? So--</s>CABRERA: I mean, when you talk about the importance of this case and the bigger pictures, the stand-your-ground law in Florida has been controversial for some time. We all remember the George Zimmerman case--</s>JACKSON: Only too well.</s>CABRERA: --with Trayvon Martin being the victim there.</s>JACKSON: Yes.</s>CABRERA: And George Zimmerman was put on trial. He was found not guilty. That was a second-degree murder case.</s>JACKSON: Yes.</s>CABRERA: This one was manslaughter. How do you see this impacting that law in a broader sense?</s>JACKSON: Well, first of all, in a broader sense, I think we should say that the majority of states do have stand-your-ground. And I think that only says one thing. There's a recognition that, look, you can use - the law allows you to use force if it's necessary, appropriate and reasonable. In this case, it wasn't. To the - so majority of states recognize that you know what, they want to do that. About 27 or so states have it. To the broader picture and the context of what happened with Trayvon Martin, remember, there was no videotape there. That was really testimonial evidence. They had other types of evidence. But this, there was a videotape directly pointing to the actions. And I think what it shows, if I could be optimistic in the broader sense, is it shows that the jurors are going to do the right thing if they have the evidence to demonstrate what that right thing is. And the defense in this case was asking the jurors, don't believe your lying eyes. Right? Because, of course, the person who is the defendant in this case was saying he was attacking me, he was approaching me.</s>CABRERA: What he described as--</s>JACKSON: That's not what the tape showed at all. So--</s>CABRERA: Joey Jackson, thank you, my friend.</s>JACKSON: Always. Thanks, Ana.</s>CABRERA: Good to have you here.</s>JACKSON: Always.</s>CABRERA: Coming up, ravaged by time. New images from the ocean depths showing the Titanic's shocking decline.