Colin Ferguson

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For the Canadian actor, see Colin Ferguson (actor)

Colin Ferguson (born January 14, 1958, Kingston, Jamaica) was convicted of murdering six people and injuring nineteen others on the Long Island Rail Road in Nassau County, New York on December 7, 1993. As the train pulled into the Merillon Avenue Station, Ferguson pulled out his gun and started firing at white passengers. Ferguson's trial was notable for a number of unusual developments, including his firing of his defense counsel and insisting on representing himself and examining himself as a live witness.

Trial

Ferguson's defense team had proposed an innovative defense that he had been driven to temporary insanity by black rage, and that he should not be held criminally liable, even though he had committed the killings. However, Ferguson insisted that he had not committed the shootings and chose to represent himself. Ferguson's attorney was quoted in the Associated Press (August 12, 1994) as saying,

"Without a psychiatric defense, Ferguson has no defense. There was no doubt that he was there, that he fired the weapon, that he would have fired it more if he had not been wrestled to the ground. There is no doubt that Colin Ferguson, if sane, was guilty."

Although more than a dozen witnesses testified that he was the shooter, Ferguson argued that he was being framed, maintaining that someone had stolen his gun while he slept and shot the passengers. "This is", he said, "a case of stereotyped victimization of a black man and the subsequent conspiracy to destroy him."

Before the trial, William M. Kunstler and Ronald L. Kuby attempted to argue that Ferguson was driven to mental illness through years of living in an oppressive and racist society. They argued that Ferguson's insistence on representing himself and not pleading insanity demonstrated his psychological incompetence to stand trial. This position was rejected by the presiding judge Donald E. Belfi. Ferguson was found competent to stand trial at the Nassau County Court.

Ferguson argued that the 93 counts he was charged with were related to the year 1993, and thus the charges had been fabricated by the prosecution. He also argued that a mysterious black man, with the same residential address, had committed the crimes. Later, he argued that a white man had committed the crimes. He called witnesses that identified him as the killer, and spoke to them in such a way as to provoke them to reiterate that identification time and again. Reporters described these moments of Ferguson's defense as "bizarre" and "surreal". Among the defense witnesses Ferguson requested was President Bill Clinton.

Ferguson was convicted on February 17, 1995 of murder for the death of the six passengers who died of their injuries (Denis McCarthy, James Gorycki, Amy LoCicero, Theresa Magtoto, Richard Nettleton and Mikyung Kim) and additional charges for the nineteen who were wounded during the mass murder. He received six consecutive life sentences, along with the judge's promise that "[Colin Ferguson] will never return to society, and will spend the rest of his natural life in prison." At the sentencing, Judge Belfi called Ferguson a "selfish, self-righteous coward."

Ferguson is currently serving his sentence at the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York. He is not eligible for parole until August 8, 2309.

Aftermath

Carolyn McCarthy, whose husband Denis McCarthy was killed by Ferguson, and whose son, Kevin McCarthy, was severely injured, was subsequently elected to the United States Congress on a platform of gun control. Some of Ferguson's other victims and their family members have also become involved in gun control efforts.

Gun rights advocates frequently cite the Ferguson attack on the commuter train as an example of the danger of disarming the population, arguing that Ferguson was able to shoot as many victims as he did because no other person on the train was able to return fire.

The death penalty was reinstated in New York following the massacre, although it would later be found unconstitutional by the New York Court of Appeals in 2004, with no further executions carried out.

Most of the regular commuters who used the 5:33 Hicksville Local returned to the train the day after the shootings. Interviewed by the media, a number cited the need to face their fears and the trauma created by the crimes rather than avoid riding their regular train.

The railroad did not discontinue the scheduled train or alter its schedule after the shootings, and the 5:33 Hicksville Local continues to operate as of April 2006. The car (M-3 9891) in which the shootings occurred was refurbished, but was renumbered (to 9945) along with its mate (9946).

Ferguson was the subject of a Saturday Night Live comedy sketch where he, portrayed by Tim Meadows, declared "I did not shoot them, they shot me" and asked witnesses questions about shooting him while they were on the stand.

During the 1993 summer excursion season the LIRR presented a dinner theater mystery, Murder on the Montauk Express, on its premier Friday evening train to the resorts of the Hamptons and Montauk. The play was not renewed after the Ferguson murders.

Quotes

• "I hope somewhere down the road I will be forgotten...that I will just be able to live the life I had before, a quiet life unknown to the world." -- Colin Ferguson, after his conviction