In this Dec. 4, 2014 file photo, demonstrators participate in a rally against a grand jury's decision not to indict the police officer involved in the death of Eric Garner, in New York. Who, if anyone, is leading the emerging movement around the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner -- younger activists or legacy civil rights groups? The legacy civil rights organizations _ the National Action Network, the NAACP, the National Urban League _ last week called for people to coalesce on Saturday for a national march with the families of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, unarmed black men who have died at the hands of white police officers. Grand juries refused to indict the white police officers in those cases. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
Esaw Garner, wife of Eric Garner, speaks alongside Garner's mother, Gwen Carr, left, during a news conference at the National Action Network headquarters in New York on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014 after a grand jury's decision not to indict a New York police officer involved in the death of Eric Garner. A video shot by an onlooker and widely viewed on the Internet showed the 43-year-old Garner telling a group of police officers to leave him alone as they tried to arrest him. The city medical examiner ruled Garner's death a homicide and found that a chokehold contributed to it. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Esaw Garner, wife of Eric Garner, speaks alongside Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, left, during a news conference at the National Action Network headquarters in New York on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014 after a grand jury’s decision not to indict a New York police officer involved in the death of Eric Garner. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Jonathan Allen, REUTERS

NEW YORK (Reuters)—A New York judge is due to hear arguments on Monday whether to make public records of a grand jury hearing into the case of an unarmed black man killed after a policeman put him in a chokehold while arresting him for peddling loose cigarettes.

After an unusually lengthy session lasting nine weeks, the grand jury voted in December not to indict the police officer, Daniel Pantaleo, for his role in the death of Eric Garner on a Staten Island sidewalk last summer.

Captured on video, Garner’s repeated cries of “I can’t breathe!” as Pantaleo holds him by his neck have become a slogan for protesters at rallies across the United States who accuse police forces of being hostile towards black citizens.

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