Court overturns conviction in Jena beating

[Black Angel]

Court overturns conviction in Jena beating
Judges rule teen should not have been tried as adult in racially tinged case

Updated: 11:58 a.m. ET Sept 15, 2007

JENA, La. - A state appeals court Friday tossed out the aggravated battery conviction that could have sent a black teenager to prison for 15 years in last year's beating of a white classmate in the racially tense Louisiana town of Jena.

Mychal Bell, who was 16 at the time of the December beating, should not have been tried as an adult on the battery charge, the state Third Circuit Court of Appeal in Lake Charles ruled.

Bell is one of six black Jena High School students charged in an attack on fellow student Justin Barker, and one of five originally charged as adults with attempted second-degree murder.

The charges brought widespread criticism that blacks were being treated more harshly than whites after racial confrontations and fights at their school.

Attorney Louis Scott of Monroe said he didn't know whether Bell, whose bond was set at $90,000, would get out of jail immediately.

"It means that at the present time all charges are dismissed," Scott said. "But we don't know what approach the prosecution is going to take — whether they will re-charge him, where he would have to be subjected to bail all over again or not.

"We're working on that right now," he said.

Rally for 'Jena Six' planned
Bell was to be sentenced Thursday in a case that has brought international attention to Jena. Civil rights leaders, including the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, have been planning a rally in support of the teens that day.

Nightly News

"Although there will not be a court hearing, we still intend to have a major rally for the Jena Six and now hopefully Mychal Bell will join us," Sharpton said in an e-mailed statement.

"Mychal Bell's parents will still join me in Chicago tomorrow and we will still continue mobilization on this miscarriage of justice."

Jackson said, "The pressure must continue until all six boys are set free and sent to school, not to jail."

Racial tensions flared after nooses
Jena is a mostly white town where racial animosity flared about a year ago when a black student sat under a tree that was a traditional gathering place for whites.

A day later, three nooses were found hanging from the tree, evoking for some the image of lynchings in the old South. There followed reports of racial fights and confrontations at the school, culminating in the December attack on Barker.

The reversal of Bell's conviction will not affect four other teenagers also charged as adults, because they were 17 years old at the time of the fight and, legally, no longer juveniles in Louisiana, said attorney George Tucker of Hammond.

Bell was 16 at the time of the fight, making him a juvenile under Louisiana law.

Tucker, who represented one of teens — Theo Shaw — until Friday, said the boy whose case is in juvenile court will benefit, and Bell will be tried by a judge in juvenile court.

Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr., who heard Bell's case, noted that the district attorney also could appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court.

District Attorney Reed Walters did not return a call asking his next step.

Details of ruling
Mauffray had thrown out a conspiracy conviction on which Bell was convicted, saying it was not a charge on which a juvenile may be tried as an adult. But he had let the battery conviction stand, saying Bell could be tried in adult court because the charge was among lesser charges included in the original attempted murder charge against him.

He was wrong, the Third Circuit ruled.

While teenagers can be tried as adults in Louisiana for some violent crimes, including attempted murder, aggravated battery is not one of those crimes. Defense lawyers had argued that the aggravated battery case should not have been tried in adult court once the attempted murder charge was reduced.

"The defendant was not tried on an offense which could have subjected him to the jurisdiction of the criminal court," the three-paragraph ruling said.

The case "remains exclusively in juvenile court," the Third Circuit ruled.

Source

This topic serves 2 purposes, the first being a discussion about this article, and the second about the Jena 6 case.

[+ Soul_Gatherer3000]

O.k., I'm not that into law but isn't that a hate crime? Louisiana law is already screwy but if it took three courts to decide, based on law, that the case would be held entirely in juvenile court, then how long will it take to reach a verdict? Who's t' say they can't find a loop hole? It just agitates me that nothing was done, legally, to prevent all this hastle. Anyone with half a brain who lives there knows how tense the racism is. Kinda think of it I'm suprised it hasn't infected the legal system, or has it. How can we be sure that the 'impartial' judge isn't biased in any way? This isn't the first time somethin' like this has happened within the past couple of years but I'm pretty sure it's the most extreme.

But seriously, it's a tree, they grow and die and are plentiful, especially in small towns. Why would you even wanna risk goin' t' jail over some hog squabble like that? He coulda just fought roosters like normal people but no, he had to get all tripple K and crap. And people wonder why southerners have such a horrible stereotype.

[Black Angel]

Actually Soul, it is a hate crime because the white students were the ones who hung the nooses.

If anyone is to be charged with a hate crime it should be the white students, because they were the ones who hung the noose ater seeing the black students sitting underneath it. I admit that the black students were wrong for jumping the white student, and they should be charged with assault for it, but they were provoked as they only responded to a racially charged gesture.

The white students who strung those nooses would not have done so if they didn't think that there was an inherent possibly that they would have gotten away with it. So they hung the noose, and got away with it, and the black students responded by jumping one of the teens involved.

What the black students should have done was press charges, against the students and the school, because that noose gesture is just as offensive to Blacks, as burning a cross on someone's lawn, painting a swastika on a Jewish synagogue, or burning a flag. The white students were the ones who commited the hate crime here.

The South is, and always has been fucked up socially speaking. I used to live down there. The brief time I went to school down there, I found that they were 2 years behind. I was re-learning things down there that I had already learned 2 grades before.

I admit that there are some who don't have that fucked up racist mentality, but a lot do, and unfortunately for those that don't, the ones that do are in positions of power, and are free to spread it. This situation is proof of that.

There is no way in hell those white students would have gotten away with that shit here, or any where else up North. They would have gotten their asses kicked, and not just by Blacks, but by everyone else INCLUDING Whites.

[+ Soul_Gatherer3000]

We're probably about three years behind by now. Just movin' from one hic town to another hic town made me realize how f'd up the south is. And now that you mention it they were provoked however they still went about it the wrong way. They shoulda evesdropped on their conversations and found out when the next "sexy party," so to speak, was goin' on (which was probably soon) and then spiked their drinks with some laxative or something to that effect as well as going to the police, not that they would've done anything, although it could've. I just find it so retarted, 'scuse m' french, that after years the racisim is still as potent, if not more, in certain areas, mostly small towns in the middle of who knows where. I've lived here as lost as I can remember and the first time I ever heard of Jena was a few weeks ago.

I know this is unrelated, somewhat, but there's a movement to segregate schools because some blacks belive that their children will better learn in an all-black environment. I wonder where they got their research from.

[Black Angel]

Dr. King is probably turning in his grave now.. it is a shame. But after this situation, it is probably for the best for the safety of the black students.. seeing as how murders by race still occur today.

And you are right it is fucked up, and it is a shame that racism still occurs today, but that just goes to show you that the ignorance of some will never truly die. The only thing you can do is to hope that you are able to teach your children to rise above it and hope that they'll teach their children the same.