Sunday, September 5, 1999
Associated Press
JACKSONVILLE - Two black men were charged with murder in what police said was the racially motivated killing of a white man - but prosecutors have not decided whether to pursue the case as a hate crime.
Terrence McCray, 18, and Ledell Lawrence, 20, were being held in Duval County jail without bond after their arrest Friday.
Police said the two men and possibly others beat, kicked and stomped Gregory Griffith, 50, who was mentally handicapped, on Aug. 16 until he was unconscious. Griffith died Aug. 26 at University Medical Center.
"We are looking for other suspects and other witnesses to this killing," Lt. Mark Foxworth of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office homicide unit.
McCray and Lawrence told police they were with a group of other black men who decided to beat Griffith "because he was white," police said.
They agreed to attack the next white person that walked down the street, and Griffith was the next to pass by. He was not singled out because of his disability, police said.
State attorneys had not decided whether to charge the two men with a hate crime, which can increase a person's sentence in most crimes. But in first-degree murder convictions in Florida, the minimum penalty is life in prison without parole. Thus, a hate crime would have no effect during sentencing.