Sharpton leads protest in Miller Place case

BY NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON | nia.henderson@newsday.com

8:02 PM EST, January 5, 2008

Supporters of a black man convicted in the shooting death of a white teenager who went to the man's Miller Place home to confront the man's son have insisted all along that if the races were reversed, the legal outcome would have been different.

On Saturday, they gathered outside the courthouse in Riverhead where a jury two weeks ago found John White guilty of second-degree manslaughter, and found a collective voice.

They were buoyed by the Rev. Al Sharpton of the National Action Network.

With a chant of "Step Down, DA, Step Down, DA," directed at Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota, the crowd of 400 -- mostly black, with a smattering of whites and Latinos -- made their wishes plain.

But it was the sight of White, flanked by his wife, that brought their most fervent rallying cry.

"Free John White! Free John White! Free John White!" they chanted as White took the lectern to make a brief statement.

White, 54, who was convicted Dec. 22 in the death of Daniel Cicciaro Jr., 17, faces 5 to 15 years in jail on the manslaughter conviction when he is sentenced Feb. 21. The jury found that he acted recklessly in August 2006 when he confronted Cicciaro, and four teens accompanying him, with a loaded handgun.

At trial, White's lawyers maintained that he felt threatened by a "lynch mob" reminiscent of the old South.

Saturday, in a faltering voice, White said his family's tribulations were fueled by prejudice and injustice.

He sounded weary, but steady in his faith.

"There is a road ahead," he said. "I don't know what it may bring, yet I know that God will walk with me through the fire."

In appealing the verdict, Frederick Brewington, one of White's attorneys, plans to ask for a new trial.

The Suffolk County African-American Advisory Group, which met last week with County Executive Steve Levy at his request, is asking for the same thing.

"This is a case of an innocent man in his home being awakened by a mob, and then being confronted with protecting his person and his property and his family," said the Rev. Roderick Pearson of Central Islip's Hope Missionary Baptist Church, chairman of the group. "We think the verdict should be set aside and another trial should convene."

Pearson also called for charges against the four young men who were with Cicciaro that night.

During his 15-minute oration, Sharpton sounded the same note.

"We will raise this to a level of national attention until those young men are brought to justice," Sharpton bellowed. "Stand up brothers and sisters, don't you back down, rise up for justice, rise up for fairness. We will win because God is on our side!"

As Sharpton hugged the White family and then left the stage, the crowd chanted again, "Free John White! Free John White!" and began to disperse.

"We have to stand up and fight ... he was convicted and that was an injustice," said Awilda Rosario, 27, of Hempstead, who attended the rally. "Enough with the double standard."