An Update on the Jena Six

The following was taken from BlackAmericaWeb at http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/bawnews/jenasix731

Supporters of the Jena Six Gather 43,000 Signatures for Petition, Rally Calling for Equal Justice
Date: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 By: Sherrel Wheeler Stewart, BlackAmericaWeb.com

The district attorney in LaSalle Parish, Louisiana will receieve 43,000 signatures, emails and letters today calling for equal justice for the group known as the Jena Six.

The petition presentation is part of a 9 a.m. rally on the courthouse steps for the six black teens charged with felonies in connection with the beating of a white student in December. The NAACP, Friends of Justice, Color of Change and the American Civil Liberties Union are among the groups coming together for the rally.

“We don’t know if we’ll have 100 or 500 people there,” said Alan Bean of Friends of Justice. “We just know we need to send a message. The charges should be dropped or changed to something that would not leave these young men with a felony on their records.”

While the black students were charged with felonies following the fight on Dec. 4, white students who had hung nooses in a tree at the school months earlier were given suspension, Louisiana NAACP State President Earnest Johnson told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

The hanging of the nooses was the first in a series of incidents in the small town stretching from the start of school to Dec. 4, when the fight happened.

Just weeks ago, 17-year-old Mychal Bell was found guilty of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy, but a judge has since agreed to hear motions for a new trial for Bell, a good student and star athlete on the Jena High School football team.

The other five -- Robert Bailey Jr., Bryant Purvis, Carwin Jones, Theodore Shaw and another student who has not been identified because he is a juvenile -- still await trial.

Family, friends and supporters say the events leading to Bell’s arrest and conviction began unfolding last August.

On Aug. 31, some black students asked the vice principal at Jena High School if they could sit under a tree on the traditional white side of the square. The vice principal said they could sit wherever they chose, and they did.

The next day, three nooses -- including two in the school's colors one black, one gold -- were found hanging from the tree.

On Sept. 6, black students staged a protest under the tree. The next day, police officers patrolled the halls at the school, and on Sept. 8, the school was placed on lockdown.

The school principal recommended expulsion of the three white youths who hung the nooses, but a school committee decided it was a silly prank and gave the boys a few days suspension.

Black parents went to the school board to complain, but the school board said the issue had been resolved.

On Nov. 30, the school's main academic wing was destroyed by fire, and authorities suspect it was deliberately set.

In the days to follow, a black student was beaten by a white adult and white students when he attended a party with mostly whites, according to accounts. Also around that time, a white graduate of Jena High School pulled a pump-action shotgun on three black high school students as they left a local convenience store.

Several black students reported being taunted at school after those incidents.

On Dec. 4 after lunch, a white student and a black student got into a fight, and the white student, Justin Barker, was reportedly beaten by the accused Jena Six as he lay on the floor.

Parents of Justin Barker, the student who was beaten, have said in broadcast interviews that they consider the beating attempted murder.

During Bell’s trial, District Attorney J. Reed Walters argued that the shoes used to kick Barker after he was knocked unconscious constituted weapons. He also said that because Bell took part in an attack with others, there was a conspiracy.

Attempts by BlackAmericaWeb.com to reach Walters were unsuccessful. An assistant answering his phone said that he could not comment on the case to the media.

Bell was scheduled to be sentenced on July 31, but a new team of lawyers were successful in getting the sentencing date moved to Sept. 20.

“We are hoping that on or before that date, the judge will either grant our motion to toss out the verdict or grant a new trial,” Attorney Lewis Scott told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

Scott said there are serious legal questions surrounding the handling of Bell’s case.

“First of all he was a minor. The judge didn’t have jurisdiction. It should have been in juvenile court,” he said.

Initially, Bell was represented by a public defender, and friends and family members said he did not receive adequate legal representation.

The family has since gained support from throughout the country in securing private lawyers for Bell.

The incident followed a series of racially charged events in the small town of Jena, where blacks make up about 10 percent of the population.

The state NAACP president said a remedy in this case should go beyond getting the charges dropped or reduced.

“They need to look at how these young men and their families should be compensated for what they have been through for the last eight months,” Johnson told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “They have missed a full year of school. They can not get the time back.”

Bell was considered a strong college prospect for football and was looking to the future, he said. “What happens now?”

Scott said he has talked twice with Bell, who is says “is cautiously optimistic and sometimes pessimistic."

“We are concentrating now on these charges. We will deal with football issues in the future," said Scott. "Right now, he can’t start school unless something happens that we don’t foresee at this time.”

While Jena is a small town, the incident should send a major message, Johnson said.

“Anytime there is a hanging noose threatening blacks, it is an issue,” Johnson said, "and someone should be punished."

But Donald Washington, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, said punishment in this case is difficult on the federal level.

“This is a hate crime. It would be difficult to convince any black person, including me, that it was not,” Washington told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “But it was done by juveniles.”

He said federal officials have to consider whether the matter can be handled within the system where it occurred. They can also consider transferring the matter to the adult justice system.

“If the teen were associated with an organized group like the KKK or the Aryan Nation, then it would be more likely that we could look at transferring the matter to the adult system,” he said.
James Rucker of Color of Change said that organization has raised more than $40,000 for the legal defense of the Jena Six and will continue trying to raise awareness of the problems in that town.

The 43,000 emails and signatures, he said, will also be sent to the governor, calling for action.

“We want people to understand that this kind of stuff still happens, but usually it’s under the cover of darkness,” Rucker told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “And we want people in small black communities to know that when you stand up to the white power system, the community will stand.”


Look at my previous post on the Jena Six, go to the petition and SIGN IT!!! I look forward to your comments.

~Traycee~