Teenager Gets 25-Year Sentence in Hate Crime Killing on Long Island

[one...two...tree 2,762]

By ANDY NEWMAN and MANNY FERNANDEZ

A white teenager who fatally stabbed an Ecuadorean immigrant on Long Island in 2008 was sentenced on Wednesday to 25 years in prison, the maximum sentence.

The teenager, Jeffrey Conroy, had been convicted last month of manslaughter as a hate crime for the death of Marcelo Lucero, 37, who was attacked in a parking lot of the Patchogue train station.

Just before his sentencing by Justice Robert W. Doyle of State Supreme Court in Riverhead, Mr. Conroy, 19, apologized. "I'm really sorry for what happened to Mr. Lucero," he told the judge. "Every day I wish it never happened."

Mr. Lucero's sister Isabel told Mr. Conroy she wished he had been present the day she and her mother learned of Mr. Lucero's death.

"My mother and I, we hugged, we cried, because we felt at that moment that something had been ripped out of our lives," said Ms. Lucero, who lives in Ecuador but attended the sentencing. She spoke in Spanish, her words translated through an interpreter.

Justice Doyle told Mr. Conroy that he was guilty of "senseless and brutal crimes." Mr. Conroy was acquitted of second-degree murder as a hate crime, which could have brought him a life sentence.

Mr. Conroy's father, Robert Conroy, unleashed a profanity-laced tirade at the judge and burst out of the room. "This is mercy, for crying out loud?" Mr. Conroy shouted.

............

Background story:

The verdict in State Supreme Court came 17 months after the fatal stabbing in 2008 in Patchogue. The teenager, Jeffrey Conroy, was also found guilty of gang assault in the attack on the immigrant, Marcelo Lucero, as well as attempted assault on three other Hispanic men. He was acquitted of the most serious of the 20 charges against him, second-degree murder as a hate crime.

On the first-degree manslaughter charge alone, Mr. Conroy, 19, faces a minimum of eight years and a maximum of 25 years in prison when he is sentenced by Justice Robert W. Doyle on May 26. Had Mr. Conroy been convicted of the murder charge, the maximum possible punishment was life in prison.

As the verdict was read at 11:22 a.m., the courtroom was virtually silent. Mr. Conroy stood alongside his lawyer, facing the jury forewoman, who stood just a few feet away. When Mr. Conroy sat down after the verdict, he bowed his head for a few moments — the first time since the trial began nearly seven weeks ago that he had not held his head high.

Mr. Lucero’s death exposed racial tensions on eastern Long Island and caused a number of Hispanic residents to come forward saying they were the victims of harassment and assaults. Advocates for immigrants criticized the Suffolk County Police Department for failing to fully investigate complaints of assaults on Latinos, and also criticized some county leaders and politicians for fueling the hostility with anti-immigrant statements. Federal authorities are investigating the department’s handling of reports of racially motivated attacks on Hispanics.

http://www.nytimes.c...7patchogue.html

[DEDixon 39]

an people wonder why prisons are overpopulated. it would not take 25 years to rehabilitate the teen.

[evli1966 88]

I feel for the victim and his family.

No one condones any crime and or a hate crime.

This stuff still happens around the world and unforunately in the USA as well.

[Fandango 1,440]

I feel for the victim and his family as well....no one deserves that. But I object to this whole 'hate crime' angle. How can one crime be a 'hate crime', and another isn't? How is murder somehow worse when it's classified as a 'hate crime'?

[GabiandVi 34]

I feel for the victim and his family as well....no one deserves that. But I object to this whole 'hate crime' angle. How can one crime be a 'hate crime', and another isn't? How is murder somehow worse when it's classified as a 'hate crime'?

And crimes of passion often result in lighter sentences.

[Peikko 1,575]

Yes, let's pretend that murdering someone simply because they belong to an identifiable group that you object to for whatever reason is no different from murdering someone for a specific set of reasons and circumstances. Exellent idea, I'm sure the jews would approve No, I can't see the reason behind identifying crimes that are perpetrated against target groups at all, what a pointless waste of time.

[GabiandVi 34]

Yes, let's pretend that murdering someone simply because they belong to an identifiable group that you object to for whatever reason is no different from murdering someone for a specific set of reasons and circumstances. Exellent idea, I'm sure the jews would approve No, I can't see the reason behind identifying crimes that are perpetrated against target groups at all, what a pointless waste of time.

I'm sure that the mother of a 10 year old murdered by a neighbor would feel less bad than the jews. Are you serious? Does that 10 year old's life count for less because the person who killed her "wasn't committing a hate crime?"

I can tell you that if anyone harms my child, I would want them to get the maximum whether they did it because she is biracial, because they wanted the shoes she was wearing, because she liked the same boy, because they enjoyed killing, whatever. Maybe you would feel differently about anyone killing your child.

[Peikko 1,575]

I'm sure that the mother of a 10 year old murdered by a neighbor would feel less bad than the jews. Are you serious? Does that 10 year old's life count for less because the person who killed her "wasn't committing a hate crime?"

I can tell you that if anyone harms my child, I would want them to get the maximum whether they did it because she is biracial, because they wanted the shoes she was wearing, because she liked the same boy, because they enjoyed killing, whatever. Maybe you would feel differently about anyone killing your child.

You misundersatnd the purpose of categorizing crimes in this way. It has nothing whatsoever to do with evaluating the life of the victim.

Edited May 27, 2010 by Madame Cleo

[CDAgirlMI 51]

an people wonder why prisons are overpopulated. it would not take 25 years to rehabilitate the teen.

how long would it take?

[Fandango 1,440]

You misundersatnd the purpose of categorizing crimes in this way. It has nothing whatsoever to do with evaluating the life of the victim.

Does she? Because that is my point as well. Take the same murder, one which happens because the victim is XYZ race/religion/etc and another because he's in the 'wrong place, wrong time'....explain to me the logic of sentencing one more harshly than the other simply based on that xyz status?

Furthermore, can an xyz or whomever be murdered simply because yet have it judged as a hate crime because of that fact?

[GabiandVi 34]

You misundersatnd the purpose of categorizing crimes in this way. It has nothing whatsoever to do with evaluating the life of the victim.

We have another category for the example you have used. It is called genocide. I understand completely the purpose of categorizing crimes this way. I still say it is ridiculous.

This teenager killed a man. He deserves the sentence he got. The value of the life of the victim, the intensity of the reason for the murder. It amounts to the same thing. The man is dead. Murder was committed.

A murder committed because someone wants your shoes is no less horrendous than a murder committed because someone hates homosexuals or blacks or jews. If the person committing murder who does so because he hates your race deserves 25 years, so does the person who has so little regard for your life that shoes are more valuable. So does the person who has so little regard for your life that she will teach you to date her man. So does the person who is your trusted spouse but who turns on you in rage and bludgeons you to death. They have taken a life. It's because they have taken a life that they are being punished. If they take the life because they are callous, they deserve the same punishment if they take the life because they are hateful. It's the same life.

Does anyone really think that categorizing a murder as a hate crime is going to make a difference in hate crimes? If that's so, then maybe the same sentence would deter murder for shoes.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

murder is murder.

rape is rape.

assault is assault.

You have "pre-meditated" = First Degree

You have murder during another incident = Second Degree

You have murder by accident/unintended consequence = manslaughter

That is enough.

Digging into someone's thought process on their beliefs is a violation of the first amendment through and through.

[Peikko 1,575]

A thorough misunderstanding of the judicial system on display. I am sorry that you allow your emotive attachment to the victims of crime blind you to the reality of how the law actually works and why, but I can not say I am surprised.

Once again, the categorizing of crime is not to place a value on the victim, nor to assess how dead the victim is.

[DEDixon 39]

how long would it take?

wouldn't take 25 years, but the exact time would be for the experts to determine. i do think, however that it would take a lot less than 25 years. that amount of time in prison will completely destroy the guy and that isn't necessary.

[GabiandVi 34]

A thorough misunderstanding of the judicial system on display. I am sorry that you allow your emotive attachment to the victims of crime blind you to the reality of how the law actually works and why, but I can not say I am surprised.

Once again, the categorizing of crime is not to place a value on the victim, nor to assess how dead the victim is.

I'm sure in your "superior intelligence" you ASSume you know how the law actually works and why better than we do. Please explain how it actually works in this case, and why. I would love for you to explain it in a way that makes categorizing a murder as a hate crime actually work on any level.

I must say, you seem to have a very superficial understanding of the comments made, but then I shouldn't surprised. When a person prejudges others, they can't see beyond what they expect to see.