The Nation - News from Dec. 20, 1987

The judge in the Howard Beach trial in New York told jurors that an accomplice’s testimony could be accepted if other evidence merely tended to corroborate it, an interpretation that angered defense lawyers. The jury ended its 10th day of deliberations at 8 p.m. and was scheduled to return this morning. State Supreme Court Judge Thomas Demakos’ instruction was issued after the jury had requested guidance for the second consecutive day on the rules governing the testimony of an accomplice to a crime. Lawyers for the four white defendants charged with chasing a black to his death on a freeway objected that Demakos, in responding to the same question that jurors asked Friday, slightly changed his answer to favor the prosecution.