The family of a Queens cop who was gunned down by two Black Panthers more than 20 years ago breathed a sigh of relief yesterday as a federal judge tossed the convicted killers’ bid for a new trial.
“I knew we were on the right side,” said Vivian Scarangella, the widow of NYPD Officer John Scarangella, who was shot 13 times on April 16, 1981. “That was my life. I lost my husband. My children lost their father.”
The widow was accompanied to court by Scarangella’s partner Richard Rainey, who survived taking eight bullets and said he is “in pain all the time.”
Lawyers for ex-Black Panthers Abdul Majid, formerly known as Anthony LaBorde, and Basheer Hameed, aka James Dixon York, had argued that prosecutors wrongly kept 12 of the 15 black potential jurors from serving during the 1986 trial on the basis of race.
At a lengthy hearing yesterday, Brooklyn federal Judge Jack Weinstein systematically ticked off the various reasons Queens Executive Assistant DA Gregory Lasak gave on the record for booting each of the prospective jurors.
“The critical question is whether … intent of the prosecutor [was] to exclude a juror solely because of race,” said the judge.
Weinstein ultimately found that Majid’s and Hameed’s claims were “frivolous,” but gave the pair permission to take their case to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.
“It’s just reliving it all over again,” said Vivian Scarangella, who wore a gold necklace bearing her husband’s shield number, and was accompanied to court by her four grown children.
Majid is serving a sentence of 33 years to life, and Hameed is in prison for 25 years to life, after a jury that included three black members voted for conviction in 1986. Two previous trials ended with hung juries.