New York: Black and Blue

The next move may be the Diallos'. In the fictional life he created to persuade immigration officers to let him stay in America, Amadou Diallo claimed he was a refugee from "ethnic cleansing" in the West African nation of Mauritania, that soldiers had tortured his uncle to death, that they had murdered his parents. Now, his parents, alive, have come back to seek justice for their dead son. After some squabbling, they have settled on how they will administer Amadou's estate. It could be worth a lot, especially if a civil suit against the police department succeeds. It will be the Diallo family's chance to make the city accountable for the acts of the SCU, which one TV commentator called an "unindicted co-conspirator." Even some cops expect a day of reckoning. Says a Brooklyn sergeant: "If there is anyone who should have been on trial, it is the department. Those guys went out for numbers--they didn't go out to kill anyone--but the department wants guns and numbers."

Kadiatou Diallo cannot yet bring herself to reconcile with the men who killed her son. Last week, the verdict still fresh, her lawyer said that reporters would ask her about Sean Carroll's wish to meet with her. Her response was to fold her arms across her chest. "Only when the person comes and says the truth," she says. "Then forgiveness will come."

--Reported by Elaine Rivera/Albany and Edward Barnes, Eric Pooley and William Dowell/New York