The man acquitted for the murder of Yankel Rosenbaum during the 1991 Crown Heights riots now will be tried as an adult in a separate case.
Judge David Trager made the decision last Friday regarding the trial of Lemrick Nelson on charges of violating the victim’s civil rights.
The judge’s decision was “the logical one and the right one,” said Rep. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y) in a statement.
“It’s tragic that five years after the Crown Heights riot and the murder of Yankel Rosenbaum, justice has still not been served.”
Rosenbaum, a 29-year-old Talmud student from Australia, was murdered Aug. 19, 1991, when black and Jewish residents of the Crown Heights section of New York clashed after a car driven by a Chassidic Jew went out of control and killed a 7-year-old black boy.
Nelson, then 17, was found in possession of a bloody knife. He was only one to go to trial in connection with the murder.
“This decision says to the world; if you commit a crime, you will do adult time,” Schumer said.
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