Michael Griffith (March 2, 1963 – December 20, 1986) was a 23-year-old

black man Black Man may refer to: * Black people * ''Black Man'' (novel), a 2007 novel by Richard Morgan *Black Man (song), a 1976 song by Stevie Wonder *Black Man (wrestler), a Mexican wrestler *Bogeyman The Bogeyman (; also spelled boogeyman, bogyman, ...

who was killed on December 20, 1986, in

Howard Beach Howard Beach is a neighborhood in the southwestern portion of the New York City borough of Queens. It is bordered to the north by the Belt Parkway and Conduit Avenue in Ozone Park, to the south by Jamaica Bay in Broad Channel, to the east by 1 ...

, in Queens, New York City, in a racially motivated attack. Griffith and two other black men were set upon by a group of white youths outside a pizza parlor. Two of the victims, including Griffith, were severely beaten. Griffith fled onto a highway where he was fatally struck by a passing car. Three local teenagers, Jon Lester, Scott Kern, and Jason Ladone, were convicted of

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...

for the death of Griffith. A fourth assailant, Michael Pirone, was acquitted. Griffith's death heightened racial tensions in New York City and was the second of three highly publicized, racially motivated killings of black men by white mobs in New York City in the 1980s. The other victims were

Willie Turks Willy or Willie is a masculine, male given name, often a diminutive form of William or Wilhelm, and occasionally a nickname. It may refer to: People Given name or nickname * Willie Aames (born 1960), American actor, television director, and scr ...

in 1982 and

Yusuf Hawkins Yusef Kirriem Hawkins (also spelled as Yusuf Hawkins, March 19, 1973 – August 23, 1989) was a 16-year-old black teenager from the neighborhood of East New York, in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, who was shot to death on August 23, ...

in 1989.

Michael Griffith

Griffith was born in 1963. He immigrated to the United States from Trinidad with his family in 1973.

Attack

Late on the night of Friday, December 19, 1986, four black men, Michael Griffith, 23; Cedric Sandiford, 36; Curtis Sylvester and Timothy Grimes, both 20, were traveling from Brooklyn to Queens to pick up Griffith's paycheck, when their car, a 1976

Buick Buick () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American marques of automobiles, and was the company that established General ...

, broke down on a deserted stretch of Cross Bay Boulevard near the neighborhoods of Broad Channel and Far Rockaway. As Sylvester, the owner of the car, remained behind, the other three men walked about three miles north to the mostly white neighborhood of

to find a pay phone. After entering Howard Beach, the three men were accosted by a group of white residents, who yelled racial slurs and told them to leave the neighborhood. By , the men reached the New Park Pizzeria near the intersection of Cross Bay Boulevard and 157th Avenue. After a rest and a meal, the men left the pizzeria at and were confronted by a larger group of white youths led by 17-year-old John Lester and 16-year-old Jason Ladone. The group were armed with tire irons, baseball bats, and tree limbs. The group of white youths attacked Griffith and Sandiford outside the pizzeria, while Grimes escaped after brandishing a knife. The youths chased the men, and Sandiford and Griffith were seriously beaten. While fleeing the attack, Griffith ran onto the nearby

Belt Parkway The Belt Parkway is the name given to a series of connected limited-access highways that form a belt-like circle around the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. The Belt Parkway comprises three of the four parkways in what is known as t ...

where he was struck and killed by a car. His body was found on the highway at When police found Sandiford walking west on the highway, they brought him to the site of Griffith's body and, without providing medical attention, searched him and placed him in a squad car before interrogating him for several hours. The next morning, police chief Benjamin Ward reprimanded the officers for their treatment of Sandiford. New York mayor Edward Koch compared the attack on the men to a

lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...

. Black civil-rights activist Al Sharpton organized several protests in Howard Beach and nearby neighborhoods. Ministers Floyd Flake and Herbert Daughtry and activist Sonny Carson urged boycotts of white-owned businesses and pizzerias. During protests, mostly black marchers carried signs comparing the neighborhood to South Africa during apartheid, while white residents displayed signs reading " Niggers Go Home", " White Power", and "Bring Back Slavery".

Investigation and trial

Griffith's death provoked strong outrage and immediate condemnation by mayor Edward Koch, who referred to the case as the "No. 1 case in the city". Two days after the event, on December 22, three local youths, Lester and Ladone, along with Scott Kern, 18; all students at John Adams High School, were arrested and charged with second-degree

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

. The driver of the car that struck Griffith, 24-year-old Dominick Blum, was not charged with any crime. The Griffith family, as well as Cedric Sandiford, retained the services of

Alton H. Maddox Alton Henry Maddox Jr. (July 21, 1945 – April 23, 2023) was an American lawyer who was involved in several high-profile civil rights cases in the 1980s. Education Maddox was born on July 21, 1945, in Inkster, Michigan, and grew up in Newnan, ...

and

C. Vernon Mason C. Vernon Mason is a former lawyer and civil rights advocate from Tucker, Arkansas. Best known for his involvement in several high-profile New York City cases in the 1980s, including the Bernhard Goetz, Howard Beach, and Tawana Brawley incidents, ...

, two attorneys who would become involved in the

Tawana Brawley Tawana may refer to: * Tswana an ethnic group in Botswana *List of rulers of Tawana People *Tawana Brawley rape allegations *Tawana Kupe Zimbabwean-South African academic *Kea Tawana Kea Tawana (c. 1935 – August 4, 2016) was an American artist k ...

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. After witnesses repeatedly refused to cooperate with Queens district attorney

John J. Santucci John Joseph Santucci (April 2, 1931 – June 26, 2016) was an American lawyer and politician. Life The son of Italian immigrant parents, Santucci was born on April 2, 1931, in Ozone Park, Queens, New York City.Mario Cuomo appointed

Charles Hynes Charles Joseph Hynes (born Charles Aiken Hynes; May 28, 1935 – January 29, 2019) was an American lawyer and Democratic politician from New York who served as Kings County District Attorney from 1990 to 2013. Early life and education Hynes ...

as special prosecutor to handle the Griffith case on January 13, 1987. The move came after pressure from black leaders on Cuomo to dismiss Santucci, who was seen as too partial to the defendants to prosecute the case effectively. Twelve 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. A little over a year after the death of Griffith, and after 12 days of jury deliberations, the three main defendants, Kern, Lester and Ladone, were convicted on December 21, 1987, of second-degree

and first-degree

assault An assault is the act of committing physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in crim ...

. Michael Pirone, 18, was acquitted. Ultimately nine people would be convicted on a variety of charges related to Griffith's death. 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. The other defendants were convicted of lesser charges; most were sentenced to community service.

Aftermath

Subsequent race-related crimes in New York city included the 1989 killing of black teenager

in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn by a gang of white youths. In 1999, six blocks of Pacific Street in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, where Griffith had lived as a child, were named in his honor, as "Michael Griffith Street". Jason Ladone, then 29, was released from prison in April 2000 after serving 10 years, and later became a city employee. He was arrested again in June 2006, on drug charges. In May 2001, Jon Lester was released and deported to his native England where he studied electrical engineering and started his own business. He died on August 14, 2017, at age 48 in a suspected suicide. He left behind a wife and three children. Scott Kern was released from prison in 2002, the last of the three main perpetrators to be released. In 2005, the Griffith case was brought back to the public's attention after another racial attack in Howard Beach. A black man, Glenn Moore, was beaten severely with a metal baseball bat by Nicholas Minucci, who was convicted of

hate crime A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group or racial demograph ...

s in 2006. The case was revisited yet again by the media after the death of

Michael Sandy Michael J. Sandy (October 12, 1977 – October 13, 2006) was a man from Brooklyn, New York, who died after being hit by a car during an attempted robbery. His assailants admitted that they planned their robbery because Sandy was gay. Background ...

, 29, who was beaten and hit by a car after being chased onto the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn, New York, in October 2006.

Michael Griffith

Attack

Investigation and trial

Aftermath

See also

References

Further reading