Michael Griffith (manslaughter victim)

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Michael Griffith (1963 – 1986) was a 23-year old man born in Trinidad and lived in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, who was killed after being hit by a car in Howard Beach, Queens, New York, on December 20, 1986. Griffith was chased onto a highway by a mob of white youths who had beaten him and his friends. Griffith's death was the second in a string of three infamous racially motivated killings of blacks by white mobs in New York City in the 1980s. The other victims were Willie Turks killed in 1982 and Yusuf Hawkins killed in 1989.

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[edit] Friday, December 19, 1986

Late on the night of Friday, December 19, 1986, four black men, Michael Griffith, 23; Cedric Sandiford, 36; Curtis Sylvester, 20; and Timothy Grimes, were riding in a car when it broke down in a desolate patch of land on the Cross Bay Boulevard near Broad Channel. Three of the men walked about three miles north to seek help in the Howard Beach neighborhood of Queens, an insular, mostly white Italian-American community. Sylvester remained behind to watch the car.

[edit] Saturday, December 20, 1986

By 12:30 a.m. on the morning of the 20th, the men reached the New Park Pizzeria on Cross Bay Boulevard. After having a quick meal, the men left the pizzeria at 12:40 a.m. where they were confronted by a group of about 10 white men who screamed racial slurs at the men. Of the four, Grimes eluded serious harm, but Sandiford and Griffith were seriously beaten. Griffith while trying to evade his tormentors ran in front of a moving car, driven by the son of a police officer and was killed. His body was found on Shore Parkway at 1:03 a.m.[1]

[edit] Arrests

The killing of Griffith provoked strong outrage and immediate condemnation by then Mayor of New York Ed Koch. Two days later on the 22nd, three arrests were made of local teenagers; the accused were Jon Lester, Scott Kern and Jason Ladone. The driver of the car that struck Griffith, 24-year old Dominick Blum was not charged with any crime and was cleared by a grand jury in May, 1987.

[edit] Protests

To protest the killing of Griffith 1,200 demonstrators marched through the streets of Howard Beach on December 27, 1986. A heavy NYPD presence kept angry locals who were screaming racial epithets from the highly emotional crowd of marchers. The protests were led in part by Al Sharpton, whose role in the Griffith case helped propel him to city-wide and ultimately national notoriety.

[edit] Legal Proceedings

One of the victims, Cedric Sandiford and the Griffith family retained the services of Alton H. Maddox and C. Vernon Mason, two controversial attorneys who would earn infamy for their role in the Tawana Brawley affair the following year. Maddox raised the ire of the NYPD and Commissioner Benjamin Ward by accusing them of trying to cover up facts in the case and aid the defendants.[2]

[edit] Governor Cuomo intercedes

After prosecutorial witnesses repeatedly refused to cooperate with Queens D.A. John J. Santucci, Governor of New York Mario Cuomo appointed Charles Hynes special prosecutor to handle the Griffith case on January 13, 1987. The move came after heavy pressure from black leaders on Cuomo to get Santucci off the case, who was seen as too partial to the defendants to effectively prosecute the case.[3]

[edit] New indictments

A total of 12 defendants were indicted by a grand jury on February 9, 1987, including the original three charged in the case. Their original indictments had been dismissed after the witnesses refused to cooperate in the case.

[edit] Verdicts

After a lengthy trial and 12 days of jury deliberations, the three main defendants were convicted on December 21, 1987, of manslaughter, a little over a year after the death of Griffith. Kern, Lester and Ladone were convicted of second-degree manslaughter and Michael Pirone, 18 was acquitted. Ultimately 9 people would be convicted on a variety of charges related to the death of Griffith.

[edit] Sentencing

On January 22, 1988, Jon Lester was sentenced to ten to thirty years imprisonment. On February 5, Scott Kern was sentenced to six to eighteen years imprisonment, and on February 11, 1988, Jason Ladone received a sentence of five to fifteen years imprisonment.

[edit] Aftermath

Cedric Sandiford, one of the principal victims and witnesses in the Griffith case died of AIDS-related complications in 1991, and in December of 1999, the street where Griffith lived was renamed "Michael Griffith Street." [4]

Jason Ladone then 29, was released from prison after serving 10 years in April of 2000, and later became a city employee. He was arrested again in June 2006, on drug charges.[5] In May 2001, Jon Lester was released and deported to his native England, while Scott Kern, the last of the main three perpetrators was released from prison in 2002.

In 2005 the Griffith case was brought back to the public's attention after another racial attack in Howard Beach. A black man, Glen Moore, was beaten severely with a metal baseball bat by Nicholas Minucci, who was convicted in 2006.[6] The case was revisited yet again by the media, after the death of Michael Sandy, 29, who was beaten and hit by a car after being chased onto the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn, NY in October of 2006.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ McFadden, Robert D. "Black Man Dies After Beating In Queens" New York Times, December 21, 1986, p. A1.
  2. ^ Barron, James. "Ward Renews Attack on Lawyer in Beating Case" New York Times 9 January 1987, p.B5.
  3. ^ Smothers, Ronald "Hynes Is Selected To Be Prosecutor In Queens Attack." New York Times 14 January, 1987, p. A1.
  4. ^ Press Release Archives #453-99- MAYOR GIULIANI SIGNS BILL THAT NAMES STREET AFTER MICHAEL GRIFFITH
  5. ^ 1010 WINS - On-Air, Online, On Demand - *
  6. ^ 1010 WINS - On-Air, Online, On Demand - *