As the sun goes down over Queens, the two men who battled each other in the Howard Beach race trial 20 years ago meet at the scene of the crime that changed their careers.  And maybe the City of New York.

     This is last week and Brooklyn district attorney Charles (Joe) Hymes and defense attorney Stephen Murphy stand in front of the New Park Pizzeria on Cross Bay Blvd. and 157 Ave. in Howard Beach, where on the night of Dec. 19, 1986, a dozen white teens brandishing baseball bats and other weapons and shouting racial epithets surrounded three black men whose car had broken down in this predominantly white neighborhood, then best known as the home of mob boss John Gotti.

Denis Hamill
The New York Daily News

     The venerable and vitriolic criminal lawyer Stephen Murphy spoke to his friend, rap star 50 Cent, from his Bay Ridge law office recently. 

     The conversation, said Murphy, was brief but amiable, with the multi-platinum rapper extending an invitation to a party he was throwing in August for a mutual friend.  The only question was whether Murphy would fit in."

Jotham Soderstrom
The Brooklyn Papers, The Bay Ridge Paper

     "Same dance, different music.  In the late 1980's , Steve Murphy made his reputation as the lawyer who walked both of his white clients in the racially charged Howard Beach and Bensonhurst trials.

     Last year in Queens, Murphy represented rapper Elaikim Johnson who was charged with the attempted homicide of five officers in the Queensbridge projects.  That charge carries a life sentence, the same as murder of an ordinary citizen.

     At that trial, Murphy shredded the testimony of the cops like blue confetti and won his client's full acquittal.

     After the verdict, Johnson hugged Murphy and said "Murphy you my n-----".   It was a moment of pure New York irony, a black rapper  using the unprintable N-word as a term of endearment for the most high profile white Howard Beach trail lawyer."  
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Denis Hamill
The New York Daily News  

Here we are last Monday in Queens Supreme court and the cop on the stand has contradicted himself at least three times.

Murphy, one of the best trial lawyers in New York, stalks across the floor in front of Judge Roger Rosengarten, lean and compact in an impeccable gray suit and plants his feet like James Cagney."
Denis Hamill
New York Daily News

That sentiment shared by Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hymes who prosecuted the racially charged Howard Beach case in the late 1980's and then devoted a chapter in his subsequent book "Incident at Howard Beach" to the cocky lawyer, titling it simply 'Murphy's Game.'"

Murphy was at the top of his game in that trial - his client, Michael Pirone, was the only one of several charged in the murder of Michael Griffith to walk.  In 1990, Murphy client Keith Mondello was acquitted of a murder and manslaughter charge in the Bensonhurst killing of Yusef Hawkins, although he was convicted on lesser charges."

Dennis Duggan
Newsday

"Welcome back to Murphy's Law.

Bang the gavel three times, because the best trial lawyer I've ever covered is back in court. 

...With a new law office in Bay Ridge is ready to dazzle juries, outwit prosectuors, strike envy into the hearts of felow defense barristers, and threaten the sobriety of a few judges. 

Denis Hamill
The New York Daily News