Francis Holland got an email from Howard Witt asking us to let folks know about this story:
Ruling in a racially charged case that has drawn scrutiny from national civil rights leaders, a judge in the small central Louisiana town of Jena on Tuesday partially vacated the conviction of a black teenager accused in the beating of a white student while the district attorney reduced attempted murder charges against two other black co-defendants.
Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr. threw out a conspiracy conviction against Mychal Bell, granting a defense motion that Bell’s June trial was improperly held in adult court and should instead have been conducted as a juvenile proceeding.
But Mauffray let stand Bell’s conviction on aggravated second-degree battery, for which the 17-year-old faces up to 15 years in prison when he is sentenced on Sept. 20. On that date, thousands of demonstrators from across the nation are planning to descend on the town of 3,000 to protest against the prosecution of Bell and five other black youths who have come to be called the “Jena 6.”
In the months since the Tribune first reported the Jena story last May, civil rights groups, including the NAACP, the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Congressional Black Caucus, have all criticized what they assert is the uneven application of justice in the mostly white town.
The six black youths were all initially charged with attempted second-degree murder after an incident last December at the local high school in which a white student was attacked and knocked unconscious after an alleged taunt by him.
That altercation capped months of violent racial unrest between blacks and whites throughout the town that was triggered in September, 2006, when three white students hung nooses from a shade tree in the high school courtyard in a warning aimed at discouraging blacks from sitting there.
The white youths received brief suspensions after the Jena school superintendent termed the incident an “adolescent prank,” which in turn angered black students and their parents who regarded the nooses as a provocative hate crime because of the history of lynchings in the old South.
In the racially tense months that followed the noose incident, other white youths implicated in attacks on blacks were charged with misdemeanors or not at all, while the black youths in the school beating incident were charged with felonies.
“The court of public opinion is starting to coalesce rapidly around the defense of these kids,” said Alan Bean, director of Friends of Justice, a Texas-based civil rights group that has closely followed the Jena case. “Not that anybody justifies what these kids did, but they see that what’s happening to them isn’t fair and the district attorney and the school superintendent really created the situation that led to this.”
Bell, a state-ranked high school football star who was 16 at the time of the attack, is the only one of the six defendants who has so far gone to trial. On the eve of his trial, Dist. Atty. Reed Walters abruptly reduced the attempted-murder charge to aggravated second-degree battery; on Tuesday, Walters similarly reduced the charges against defendants Carwin Jones and Theo Shaw, whose trials are set for January.
Bell’s new defense attorneys said they plan further appeals before the Sept. 20 sentencing hearing in a bid to get his remaining conviction vacated.
“Basically, we are knocking things out one piece at a time,” said Louis Scott, the lead defense attorney. “We are going to try to knock the rest of it out soon.”
Previous chicago tribune articles on the jena case can be found at
www.chicagotribune.com/jena
www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-070904jena,1,4272535.story
Howard Witt
Southwest Bureau Chief
Chicago Tribune
Houston, TX
Tel 281.288.6260
Fax 281.288.6201
Cell 281.650.0297
hwitt@tribune.com
Slowly, but surely, the prosecution is falling apart amid public pressure and protest. The petition is almost up to 150,000 signatures. Thousands are planning to attend the rally on Sept. 20.
It is imperative that we keep the pressure on Gov. Blanco who seems to have suddenly discovered a little town in her state called Jena. We must remind her that legal lynching is still being carried out in the state of Louisiana (and other places).
Thanks for keeping the focus.
[...] has a more thorough rundown at the Afrospear, and Kevin has some great analysis over at Slant [...]
Another charge has been reduced in the Jena 6 case: http://www.star-telegram.com/462/story/231464.html
Since there is an estimated 50,000 people going to Jena, people might need to check out the logistics plan and schedule of events at
http://www.michaelbaisden.com/Article.asp?id=470156.
I’m kind of confused by all this Jean-6 stuff and maybe you all can help me understand it better. Below I’ve listed the string of events and my problems and opinions of each:
December 4, 2006 Attack: The way I understand it is 6 black teenagers beat the hell out of 1 white teen. Now I don’t know about you all but that sounds kind of harsh.
Noose hangings at Jena High School: While I agree this can be considered a hate crime you need to remember that the principal recommended expulsion (damn that’s really harsh) but later they were given a 3 day in-school suspension, so a punishment was handed down and if you all don’t like it go to the school board.
Fair Barn party fight: Now this incident I have a lot of problems with…A CRAP LOAD of problems with. It was a private party consisting of white and black teenagers so you can’t say race was an issue. The people trying to get into the party weren’t invited, I’m sorry just because your black doesn’t give you the right to just crash any party you want to. This incident reminded me a lot of the stabbing that happened at the University of Alabama Sigma Nu house.
I really don’t understand what the issue is here, some white kid gets the crap beat out of him and all the black people think nothing wrong happened?!?!?! Please help me to understand.
It’s clear from your comments that you don’t know all the details of the story and the circumstances related to it, and that some of those you have are inaccurate. If you knew more, you would understand why this is an important case regarding race and equal justice.
If you are sincere in wanting to know more:
you will find much sloppy reporting on the Jena story, but also some good, check on the internet! The BBC did a few good pieces on this, among others, as Alan Bean of Friends of Justice, who did alot of research.
I take issue with your statement “all the black people think nothing wrong happened.” This is clearly racist, to say that all the black people think as one mass, and I don’t think most people would say that nothing wrong was done to Barker. You are mis-characterizing the thoughts of millions of folks.
There are many who would prefer to not look at issues of racism and injustice, whether practiced by individuals or institutions, because knowing the facts can be upsetting; they call out for change. Looking at examples like Jena can be painful, so many prefer to pretend, to say it has nothing to do with race.
We have to continue to communicate on this, and to have patience with the misinformed and the foolish, while staying absolutely strong in our wisdom on this.
Blacks are quick to defend the black criminal. They have lots of practice. Their culture is being taken over by the thugs and all their leaders can do is rally their constuients to marches and demonstrations against imagined wrongs. Why not? It’s easy. Meanwhile they reap what they sow.