Taking Good from Bad: Newark's Triple-Murder Trial Starts

Newark's Triple-Murder Trial

It is the ultimate case of mining a positive out of tragedy.

In the past three years, Newark, N.J., the Garden's State's largest city, has witnessed a decrease in the violent crime rate. Many point to anti-crime reforms started in reaction to a brutal 2007 triple murder and rape that shocked the city's conscience.

With the trial of Rodolfo Godinez, the first of six defendants charged in the murders, Newark will relive the story of the shocking murders and perhaps find some answers as to why three promising college students were gunned down on a city street.

The murder victims, Terrance Aeriel, 18, Iofemi Hightower, and Dashon Harvey, both 20, all lived in Newark but attended Delaware State University. Each was shot in the head. A fourth victim, who police believe was sexually assaulted, survived the attack and has been placed in a witness-protection program.

To help bring some sense of closure for surviving family members, I hope the trial sheds some light on why these seemingly non-threatening students were gunned down.

Was it a gang initiation? Perhaps a old neighborhood beef. Maybe it was a simple robbery that went way too far. Some have suggested it was a hate crime against gays.

Whatever the cause, the murders became a lightening rod for a variety of causes in and outside of Newark.

Anti-illegal immigration forces latched on to the murders pointing out that one of the accused attackers was free on bail, even though he was arrested three times for other crimes and was in the United States illegally.

Thankfully, the state's attorney general started a policy, whereby the New State Police can refer violent crime suspects' names to federal immigration authorities if they are believed to be illegals.

Why it took this case to make this common sense change to the law, I'll never know.

The case also brought attention to the growth of youth gangs around the city, since one of the accused bore gang-initiation tattoos.

But the most useful outgrowth of the case was the community's collective decision that it was going to demand that elected leaders do something about crime other than make speeches and glad hand constituents.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker called the crime "a breaking point" for the city and was forced to confront the problem by starting a series of anti-crime programs, such as the installation of camera and gun-detection devices for neighborhood streets.

The city also cracked down on gun owners who didn't report their weapons stolen and gained access to a national gun-tracking database.

It's hard to tell if Newark's 40 percent drop in the murder rate since 2008 and reduction in shootings citywide grew out of the city's tougher anti-crime stance, but credit has to be given to city leaders who finally did what they are paid to do.