Judge declares mistrial in Sucuzhañay case

After four days of deliberations, a Brooklyn judge declared a mistrial in the case of a man who allegedly beat José Sucuzhañay to death.

Prosecutors contend Keith Phoenix and Hakim Scott shouted anti-gay and anti-Latino slurs at Sucuzhañay and his brother as they beat him with a broken bottle and a baseball bat near the intersection of Bushwick Avenue and Kossuth Place on Dec. 7, 2008. A separate jury convicted Scott of manslaughter on Thursday, May 6, but acquitted him on the hate crime charge.

The New York Times reported Phoenix's retrial will begin on June 15, but Ana María Archila, co-executive director of Make the Road New York, summed it up best when she discussed the mistrial during an interview earlier today for a story on which I'm working for EDGE.

“This case dominates a lot of people in these communities and highlights the need to do so much more than to win a verdict,” she said.