NATION : 2 Whites Cleared in N.Y. Slaying
A jury took just four hours today to clear two whites of murder and other major charges in the racial slaying last year of a black teen-ager in the Bensonhurst section.
James Patino and Joseph Serrano smiled broadly as the verdicts were read after a two-week trial.
“I’m sorry for what happened to Yusuf Hawkins, but I had nothing to with it. I was confident. I was secure in my innocence,” said Serrano, 21, after the verdict was read in state Supreme Court in Brooklyn.
“I feel great, and my lawyer’s wonderful. I’m glad everything’s over,” Patino, 25, said outside the courthouse.
Both defendants had been accused of murder, manslaughter, riot, discrimination and other charges in the attack that resulted in the death of Hawkins, who was shot in the mostly white Brooklyn neighborhood on Aug. 23, 1989.
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