Yesterday, a jury found a 19-year-old guilty of manslaughter as a hate crime for the 2008 stabbing death of an Ecuadorian immigrant. Jeffrey Conroy, who was acquitted of second-degree murder, will face a minimum of eight years in prison and a maximum of 25 years for killing Marcelo Lucero, during what Conroy's friends described as "beaner hopping," when they would target Hispanics for beatings and other attacks. Jury members said that they didn't believe Conroy's claim that another teen killed Lucero. Juror Linda Giani said, "It was extremely emotional. You have a young boy's life in your hands. You also have the family that's grieving for the loss of a son."
They also believed from day one of deliberations that the crime was a hate crime, but didn't think it was murder. One juror, Eric Kramer, explained to Newsday (subscription required), "We just didn't believe beyond a reasonable doubt that there was an intent to kill. We had a little bit of deliberation, but what we did is we followed the law which was very definite about the difference between murder and manslaughter." Kramer also told the NY Times, "It was, ‘Let’s go beat up Mexican guys. 'They never said, ‘Let’s go kill some guys, let’s go murder some guys.'"
Conroy and his family denied that he was a racist and white supremacist (his swastika tattoo was just "a joke"), and Conroy also took the stand, recanting his confession. His lawyer said there would be an appeal, "Unfortunately, in our system of justice, sometimes young men and women are convicted of crimes they did not commit. That's why we have an appeals process."
The crime drew attention to the Long Island town of Patchogue and Suffolk County and its stance towards immigrants (the Southern Poverty Law Center found a lot of violence was directed at Latinos). Lucero's family and other Hispanic advocates had been hoping for a murder conviction, but Lucero's brother was appreciative of the Suffolk County DA's office's efforts, "The hunting season is over, at least for now. I've been here every day because I wanted to see how the justice system works in this country." A translator said of Lucero's mother, "She forgives those who have committed the crime and she will pray for those who committed the crime."
