NYC Has Three Capital Trials All at Once

Ronell Wilson, seen in this photo provided by the U.S. attorney's office Friday, Jan. 12, 2007, was convicted in Brooklyn Federal Court in December, 2006, for the execution-style slaying of two police officers. His punishment could be death. At the same federal courthouse in Brooklyn, two other men, a cop killer and a deadly drug dealer, are fighting for their lives in an unusual confluence of three death penalty trials. (AP Photo/U.S. Attorney's Office) (AP)

McGriff's lawyer, David Ruhnke, called the maneuvering "simply absurd."

Today, McGriff sits in a courtroom on the 10th floor of the Brooklyn courthouse, accused of paying $50,000 to have two rivals gunned down in 2001 in an alleged encore to his criminal career.

McGriff, 46, emerged from prison in the 1990s and sought to turn his life around by producing music and movies with the help of Irv "Gotti" Lorenzo, a neighborhood friend who headed the successful Murder Inc. record label, his lawyer said. But prosecutors allege the defendant laundered more than $1 million in drug money through the label.

If a jury convicts McGriff of murder conspiracy and other charges, the panel will be asked to decide whether he should be executed.

Another jury will begin the penalty phase this week in the trial of Ronell Wilson, 23, convicted last month in the execution-style slaying of two police officers during an undercover weapons buy.

A third jury convicted Aguilar, a drug-dealing member of the Latin Kings street gang, last month of shooting a man in the head to pay off a debt to a cocaine supplier. A gravedigger testified that he helped the defendant dump the body down a cemetery storm drain _ "We heard a splash" _ where it was found rotting a year later.

Aguilar also stabbed a fellow inmate before going to court for jury selection, said prosecutor Todd Harrison. "He's committed virtually every kind of crime known to our society," Harrison said.

Aguilar's lawyers sought to persuade jurors to spare his life with testimony from his mother about his rough upbringing. His mother testified that his father slaughtered his pet rabbit to discourage him from becoming a veterinarian and complained that his "Sassy" nickname was "too girly."

The defendant "has a kernel of good in him and if his life is spared, that kernel will grow," defense attorney Lou Freeman told the jury.

The anonymous jurors deliberated for six hours before voting 10-2 against death.

"As for taking a life, we don't have that right," a woman on the jury said afterward. "God put us here and God should take us."