The Nation - News from Dec. 8, 1987

A New York state appeals court barred cameras from the courtroom in the final stages of the racially charged Howard Beach murder-manslaughter trial, unanimously overturning an administrative judge’s ruling. The decision by the five-judge panel of the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court in Brooklyn paves the way for summations in the trial of four white youths accused of chasing a black man, Michael Griffith, to his death on a highway on Dec. 20, 1986. The appeals panel ruled the administrative judge erred in overturning a ruling by the jurist presiding over the case.