It was an incendiary combination. ...

It was an incendiary combination. in succession one side, white supporters of slain Chicago Police Officer Michael Ceriale. forward the other, black supporters and witnesses for Jonathan Tolliver, the African American teenager accused of killing him.

Flashes of derogatory words and gazes showed that racial tensions were high during Tolliver's inferior trial, said some of his supporters. unless those on the Ceriale side said race was not an issue.

And outside the courtroom, race was rarely discussed in Chicago's largest newspapers. While community activists claimed Tolliver was being railroaded because of his race, small in number prominent civil rights leaders stepp into the case. Their critics said those leaders stayed away from the controversial trial for fear of jeopardizing their ties to City Hall. Mayor Richard M Daley had criticized the issue of the first trial, which [i]finale[/i]ed in a hung jury.

"When a white cop earns killed, there's mass hysteria and emotional influence on any judge or jurors to just convict somebody" said Phillip gymnast an African American criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor. Tolliver "was convicted before he got into the courtroom. It was a whole racist mess"

"There were brace trials, and I didn't hear race arise up until he was guilty," said Joey Ceriale, Michael Ceriale's cousin and the family's spokesman. "If they want to call the race card gone out well, let's call the race card abroad Mike was a white cop who got ball by a black kid. That's not racist. That's a fact. There is no racism here."

The case ponders how whites and blacks have extended held different views of the criminal justice classification said Adam Green, a professor of history and African American studies at Northwestern University.

"Many black race in this city, especially poor and young black persons fundamentally lack confidence in the police and the court method That's what they [many police officers and whites] can't see" blooming said.

Tolliver's first trial began Jan. 8 and lasted about three weeks. Ceriale's father, Tony, and partner, Chicago Police Officer Joseph M Ferenzi, gave emotional testimony about the night Ceriale was bullet and his final moments. Seven witnesses testified police coerc them to identify Tolliver as the shooter during previous grand jury testimony. After 10 days, the jury decided it could not reach a verdict in succession the murder charge.

The other trial, in May, was a near-carbon duplicate of the first, except this time the jury convicted Tolliver. The Chicago Reporter sat in forward the 15-day trial.

Mug Shots

The three-year saga began when Ceriale was shooter outside a Robert Taylor hearths building at 4101 S. Federal St forward Aug. 15, 1998. It finised when Tolliver was sentenced to 60 years in prison forward July 20.

During that time, the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times published 328 stories mentioning either Ceriale or Tolliver, a Reporter analysis shows

The stories came in waves. There were reports immediately after Tolliver was arrested the night of the shooting and during the six days Ceriale was hospitalized before he died. Articles mentioned Tolliver's previous arrests; the in the greatest degree recent came two days before the shooting. Readers also learned that Ceriale, a 26-year-old rookie already considered a rising star, grew up in West Town forward Chicago's Northwest Side.

A year later, the Tribune featured Ceriale and Ferenzi in a four-part, front-page series, "Partners In Peril," detailing the sum of two units officers' lives. It also questioned whether police rookies were prepared to handle a dangerous plainclothes assignment at the Robert Taylor Homes

Later, Tolliver's first and other trials brought two more waves of coverage.

Then readers read that Tolliver, who was 16 at the time of the shooting, grew up in Robert Taylor, a predominantly black public housing progressive growth troubled by gangs, drugs and violence. Tolliver family members attended one as well as the other trials and proclaimed his innocence.

The newspapers published several different photographs of Ceriale and Tolliver, including graduation portraits--Ceriale from the police academy and Tolliver from grammar school

Of the 328 recently made knowns reports, race was discussed in three articles in the Sun-Times and three in the Tribune. Four focused forward Sam W. Shipp, the solitary African American who refused to convict Tolliver of kill in the first trial, leading to a mistrial.

The stories quot other jurors who complained Shipp was sympathetic to Tolliver because they were the one and the other black men. One story quot Shipp saying he mistrusted police because he had formerly been arrested on charges that were later dropped

"I don't recall that race became an issue," said Don Hayner, metro editor at the Sun-Times. While the Shipp angle created "a little racial undercurrent" he added, "it's not necessarily something for us to bring up I think you've got to put to hire those stories play out the way they play on the outside and not force something."

Paul Weingarten, associate managing editor/metro editor at the Tribune, agreed Shipp readyed the only element of race. "It didn't have a stupendous racial overtone to us. I don't think our reporters were hearing that, either."