One of the victims died in the attack and is memorialized in a Brooklyn street sign, another died five years later, and the third is in jail in Virginia for unrelated crimes. The three teenagers convicted of manslaughter were released from prison and are family men in their 40s. A leader of the attack, who became the key prosecution witness and dreamed of following in his father’s footsteps in law enforcement, never did become a police officer.
In a precedent-setting decision, the judge in the case ruled that defense lawyers could no longer arbitrarily reject black jurors in criminal trials. Two years after the case went to trial, a black man was elected mayor of New York. The Queens neighborhood where the attack occurred is still predominantly white. The local pizzeria where the assault began is as popular as ever but now charges $2.50 a slice.
