Youths convicted of racial murder
Source: Agencies |
October 16, 2010, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A UNITED States jury convicted two Pennsylvania men on Thursday of a federal hate crime in the fatal beating of an illegal Mexican immigrant, finding they attacked the man for racial reasons.
An all-white jury in Scranton convicted Derrick Donchak and Brandon Piekarsky of violating the civil rights of 25-year-old Luis Ramirez, who died in July 2008 following a confrontation with a group of white high school football players.
The jury also convicted Donchak of two other counts relating to a plot to cover up the beating.
Donchak, 20, sobbed as the verdict was read. Piekarsky, 18, put his head in his hands. Both were led away in handcuffs and ordered held behind bars pending their sentencing. They could face life in prison.
Prosecutors alleged that Donchak and Piekarsky beat Ramirez because they didn't like Hispanics. Donchak is also charged in a plot to cover up the attack and obstruct an FBI investigation.
"They showed no remorse that night ... no sense of -responsibility for having beaten a man to the point of death," Justice Department prosecutor Myesha Braden said in her closing argument.
The Mexican government welcomed the guilty verdict. It sends a powerful message "in the context of a growing climate of intolerance in which hate crimes against migrants and Latinos in the US have multiplied," Mexico's Foreign Relations Department said in a statement.
An all-white jury in Scranton convicted Derrick Donchak and Brandon Piekarsky of violating the civil rights of 25-year-old Luis Ramirez, who died in July 2008 following a confrontation with a group of white high school football players.
The jury also convicted Donchak of two other counts relating to a plot to cover up the beating.
Donchak, 20, sobbed as the verdict was read. Piekarsky, 18, put his head in his hands. Both were led away in handcuffs and ordered held behind bars pending their sentencing. They could face life in prison.
Prosecutors alleged that Donchak and Piekarsky beat Ramirez because they didn't like Hispanics. Donchak is also charged in a plot to cover up the attack and obstruct an FBI investigation.
"They showed no remorse that night ... no sense of -responsibility for having beaten a man to the point of death," Justice Department prosecutor Myesha Braden said in her closing argument.
The Mexican government welcomed the guilty verdict. It sends a powerful message "in the context of a growing climate of intolerance in which hate crimes against migrants and Latinos in the US have multiplied," Mexico's Foreign Relations Department said in a statement.
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