Michael Jerome Stewart (1958, Brooklyn, New York – September 28, 1983) was a black

Black people

The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...

 graffiti

Graffiti

Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....

 artist who received recognition after his death following an arrest by New York City Transit Police

New York City Transit Police

The New York City Transit Police Department was a law enforcement agency in New York City that existed from 1953 to 1995. The roots of this organization go back to 1936 when Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia authorized the hiring of Special Patrolmen for the New York City Subway system...

 for spray-painting graffiti on a subway station wall. His treatment while in police custody and the ensuing trials of the arresting officers (all of whom were acquitted) sparked debate concerning police brutality

Police brutality

Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer....

 and the responsibilities of arresting officials in handling suspects. The saga was a widely publicized episode in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

's history of police brutality

Police brutality

Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer....

 cases.

Word of the arrest came out on September 15, 1983, as the Committee Against Racially Motivated Police Violence was holding a news conference to publicize a Congressional

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

 hearing into complaints of police abuse. Stewart had been arrested earlier that day. He died at age 25, on September 28, after 13 days in a coma. The cause of death was listed as cardiac arrest

Cardiac arrest

Cardiac arrest, is the cessation of normal circulation of the blood due to failure of the heart to contract effectively...

.

Police report and medical reports

The police report related that Stewart was seen scrawling graffiti on a wall of First Avenue Station

First Avenue (BMT Canarsie Line)

First Avenue is a station on the BMT Canarsie Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of First Avenue and East 14th Street in East Village, Manhattan, it is served by the L train at all times....

 in Manhattan at 2:50 AM on September 15, 1983. He became violent, struggled with officers, escaped to the street, was subdued and lost consciousness. He was booked at the Union Square District 4 transit police headquarters for resisting arrest and unlawful possession of marijuana, then was transported to Bellevue Hospital Center

Bellevue Hospital Center

Bellevue Hospital Center, most often referred to as "Bellevue", was founded on March 31, 1736 and is the oldest public hospital in the United States. Located on First Avenue in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, Bellevue is famous from many literary, film and television...

 to undergo psychiatric observation. Stewart arrived at Bellevue at 3:22 AM, handcuffed, legs bound and comatose with a blood alcohol content

Blood alcohol content

Blood alcohol content , also called blood alcohol concentration, blood ethanol concentration, or blood alcohol level is most commonly used as a metric of alcohol intoxication for legal or medical purposes....

 that was more than double the legal limit for drunken driving. He never regained consciousness.

Attorneys for Stewart’s family described him as “a retiring and almost docile 135-pound young artist” who was on his way home to his Clinton Hill, Brooklyn

Clinton Hill, Brooklyn

Clinton Hill is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. It is bordered on the east by Bedford-Stuyvesant, on the west by Fort Greene, on the north by Wallabout Bay and on the south by Prospect Heights...

 neighborhood where he lived with his mother, Carrie, and father, Millard, who was a retired Metropolitan Transit Authority maintenance worker.

According to the city’s Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Elliot Gross’s preliminary autopsy report, Stewart’s injuries of facial bruises and abrasions on his wrists were not linked to his death, but that he died of heart failure following a heart attack that put him into a coma.

A physician who witnessed the autopsy on behalf of the family said his death had been caused by strangulation.

Eleven police officers were involved in the incident; all were white.

Investigations

A grand jury investigation was initiated in October 1983 to determine what happened to Stewart in the 32 minutes between being arrested and his delivery to the hospital.

On October 19, about 20 black community leaders, including City Councilwoman Mary Pinkett (D. Brooklyn), protested outside the Manhattan District Attorney

New York County District Attorney

The New York County District Attorney is the elected district attorney for New York County , New York. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of New York state laws....

 Robert M. Morgenthau

Robert M. Morgenthau

Robert Morris Morgenthau is an American lawyer. From 1975 until his retirement in 2009, he was the District Attorney for New York County, the borough of Manhattan.-Early life:...

’s office at the Criminal Courts Building. Morgenthau refused to see the group stating that it would be inappropriate to comment before the case went to the grand jury in November 1983.

The November 2 medical examiner’s final report from Dr. Gross differed from his preliminary report. Gross declined to state explicitly what caused the death, but reported that Stewart died of “physical injury to the spinal cord in the upper neck” and concluded that there were “a number of possibilities as to how an injury of this type can occur”.

During the State Supreme Court five-month trial, some witnesses testified that Stewart was struck and kicked by officers while other witnesses said they did not see officers beat Stewart. None were able to determine who was responsible for Stewart’s handling and none were able to identify which officers took which actions at the arrest.

Experts could not agree on what combination of injuries, Stewart’s intoxication and cardiac health ended his life.

Seven months into the grand jury investigation, the case was dismissed because a juror, Ronald P. Fields, initiated private investigations on the case.

In February 1984, a second grand jury introduced the case before Justice George F. Roberts which indicted three officers, John Kostick, Anthony Piscola and Henry Boerner, with criminally negligent homicide, assault and perjury. Three other officers, Sgt. Henry Hassler, Sgt. James Barry and Susan Techky, who denied that they saw officers kick Stewart, were charged with perjury. In June 1985, jury selection began in State Supreme Court in Manhattan for the trial.

Prosecutor Morgenthau went to the second trial with two theories, one of neck injury leading to the death and the other that beatings caused cardiac arrest. Prosecutors pushed for second degree manslaughter to be charged if it was determined the officers recklessly caused the death. The jury was instructed that to support a charge of criminally negligent homicide, they had to find that the officers failed to take reasonable steps to prevent death.

The prosecution hoped to establish a law requiring officers to “have an affirmative duty to protect prisoners in their custody from abuse”.

William McKechnie, of the Transit Patrolman’s Benevolent Association, denied the officers' role in the death stating, “If someone dies of a heart attack, we are not doctors”.

The New York Civil Liberties Union believed the second set of indictments signaled a new direction in how prosecutors treat police abuse cases. Richard Emery a lawyer for the NYCLU stated, “The theory underlining this case is perhaps the most important development in stemming the tide of police abuse. It makes police officers strictly responsible for their prisoners. It holds them accountable.”

On November 24, 1985, the six officers were acquitted by an all-white jury.

Metropolitan Transit Authority reaction

In March 1987, the MTA, while critical of the 11 officers’ conduct, determined that only one officer, John Kostick, was subject to suspension based on departmental charges of perjury. The MTA Board approved additional training for transit officers in the handling of emotionally disturbed people and changed its policies on how the department’s internal affairs unit becomes involved with cases of possible misconduct.

Family files civil suit

Also in 1987, the 11 officers and the MTA were charged with a $40 million civil suit filed by the Stewart family which prompted hundreds of off duty transit police officers to march along Madison Avenue in front of the MTA’s headquarters carrying signs reading “End the witch hunt” and “When are we finally innocent?”

In August 1990, Stewart's parents and his siblings Jon and Lisha Cole Stewart settled the civil suit out of court for $1.7 million.

As of 1990, the police and city officials stated they were not to blame for the death of Michael Stewart.

Tributes

Artists paid homage to Stewart including the death of Radio Raheem in Spike Lee

Spike Lee

Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983....

’s Do the Right Thing

Do the Right Thing

Do the Right Thing is a 1989 American dramedy produced, written, and directed by Spike Lee, who is also a featured actor in the film. Other members of the cast include Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, and John Turturro. It is also notably the...

 and in the song Graffiti Limbo penned by songwriter Michelle Shocked

Michelle Shocked

Michelle Shocked is the stage name of Michelle Karen Johnston, an American singer-songwriter.-History:Shocked received her first international exposure in Europe, particularly Britain, with her debut album The Texas Campfire Tapes .Her first U.S...

 on her Short Sharp Shocked

Short Sharp Shocked

Short Sharp Shocked is an album by Michelle Shocked. It is her second album, released in 1988 . It was remastered and reissued in 2003 as a two-CD set by Shocked's own label, Mighty Sound...

release. An extra verse she sings live is not on the album:
"You see in order to determine that Michael Stewart was strangled to death / The coroner had to use Michael Stewart’s eyeballs, his eyes, as evidence, / So now when I tell you it was Michael Stewart’s eyes that the coroner lost / Do you know what I mean when I say that justice is blind."

"Hold On" from Lou Reed

Lou Reed

Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...

's album "New York" contains the following line: "The dopers sent a message to the cops last weekend
they shot him in the car where he sat. And Eleanor Bumpurs

Eleanor Bumpurs

Eleanor Bumpurs was an African-American woman who was shot dead on October 29, 1984, by police officers called to assist her city-ordered eviction from her apartment in the Bronx. The New York City Housing Authority was evicting her because she was four months behind in her rent of $96.85 per month...

 and Michael Stewart must have appreciated that."

Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist. His career in art began as a graffiti artist in New York City in the late 1970s, and in the 1980s produced Neo-expressionist painting.-Early life:...

 created Defacement (The Death of Michael Stewart) as a response to his death.

For his 1985 Show at Tony Shafrazi gallery Keith Haring

Keith Haring

Keith Haring was an artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s.-Early life:...

did a painting about the “slaying of Michael Stewart” titled “Michael Stewart – USA for Africa.” It depicts a Black man being strangled while handcuffed to a skeleton holding a key. People from all nations drown in a river of blood below, while others shield their eyes from the scene, and the green hand of big money oversees the scene.