Michael Dunn, right, is directed to his seat in the Jacksonville, Fla., courtroom Sept. 11. (Bob Self / Florida Times-Union)

Retrial begins for Michael Dunn, who killed a teenager in Florida after a dispute over loud music

The retrial of Michael Dunn, a Florida man who shot an unarmed teenager to death after asking him and his friends to turn down their music, began Monday with jury selection.

In February, Dunn, 47, was found guilty on three counts of attempted second-degree murder and one count of firing into a vehicle. But the jury deadlocked on the top count, first-degree murder. Dunn is being retried on that charge.

On Nov. 23, 2012, Dunn, a software engineer, fired 10 shots into an SUV, killing Jordan Davis, 17. The shooting in a convenience store parking lot in Jacksonville erupted after Dunn asked the four teenagers in the vehicle to turn down their music.

Davis has argued that he fired the shots in self-defense. He has testified that he was threatened and saw 4 inches of what he thought was a shotgun in the car, though no weapon was found. It was after this perceived threat that Dunn reached into the glove compartment of his car, pulled out a legal 9-millimeter handgun and fired 10 shots at the car that was driving off. Three bullets hit and killed Davis. Six others hit the car, and one shot missed.

The case has drawn widespread attention in part because Davis is white and all four teenagers in the SUV were black.

Dunn is being represented by attorney Waffa Hanania of Florida’s Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel. A spokeswoman for the office said jury selection is expected to last three days, and the trial is expected to last through the end of next week.

Dunn has not yet been sentenced for the counts for which he was convicted in February. He could get as much as 75 years behind bars for those counts.

This Michael Dunn case should be a real spectacle, as Florida trials go. Let's not forget how the juries let Casey Anthony and Zimmerman walk free as birds. Let's not forget how the NRA and racists kicked in half a million toward Zimmerman's defense fund. Too bad he blew it on...