Key Figure In Jena 6 Case Back In Jail
A teenager at the center of a civil rights controversy is back in jail after a judge sentenced him on charges that were pending before the attack that put him in the national spotlight, his attorney said.
Mychal Bell, who along with five other black teenagers had been accused of beating a white classmate, went to juvenile court Thursday expecting another routine hearing, said Carol Powell Lexing, one of Bell's attorneys.
Instead, after a six-hour hearing, state District Judge J.P. Mauffrey Jr. sentenced him to 18 months on two counts of simple battery and two counts of criminal destruction of property, Lexing said.
He had been hit with those charges before the Dec. 4 attack on classmate Justin Barker.
"He's locked up again," Marcus Jones said of his 17-year-old son. "No bail has been set or nothing. He's a young man who's been thrown in jail again and again, and he just has to take it."
After the attack on Barker, Bell was originally charged with attempted murder, but the charges were reduced and he was convicted of battery. An appeals court threw that conviction out, saying Bell should not have been tried as an adult on that charge.
Racial tensions began rising in August 2006 in Jena after a black student sat under a tree known as a gathering spot for white students. Three white students later hung nooses from the tree. They were suspended but not prosecuted.
More than 20,000 demonstrators gathered recently in Jena to protest what they perceive as differences in how black and white suspects are treated. The case has drawn the attention of civil rights activists including the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
"We feel this was a cruel and unusual punishment," said Sharpton, who was instrumental in organizing the protest held on Sept. 20, the day Bell was originally supposed to be sentenced in the case.
Bell's parents were also ordered to pay all court costs and witness costs, Sharpton said.
"I don't know what we're going to do," Jones said. "I don't know how we're going to pay for any of this. I don't know how we're going to get through this."
Bell and the other five defendants have been charged in connection with the attack on Barker, which left him unconscious and bleeding with facial injuries. According to court testimony, he was repeatedly kicked by a group of students at the high school.
Barker was treated for three hours at an emergency room but was able to attend a school function that evening, authorities have said.
Bell, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and Theo Shaw were all initially charged - as adults - with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit the same. A sixth defendant was charged in the case as a juvenile.
Bell, who was 16 at the time, was convicted in June of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit that crime. LaSalle Parish prosecutor Reed Walters reduced the charges just before the trial. Since then, both of those convictions were dismissed and tossed back to juvenile court, where they now are being tried.
Charges against Bailey, 18, Jones, 19, and Shaw, 18, have been reduced to aggravated second-degree battery. Purvis, 18, has not yet been arraigned.
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Mychal Bell, who along with five other black teenagers had been accused of beating a white classmate, went to juvenile court Thursday expecting another routine hearing, said Carol Powell Lexing, one of Bell's attorneys.
Instead, after a six-hour hearing, state District Judge J.P. Mauffrey Jr. sentenced him to 18 months on two counts of simple battery and two counts of criminal destruction of property, Lexing said.
He had been hit with those charges before the Dec. 4 attack on classmate Justin Barker.
"He's locked up again," Marcus Jones said of his 17-year-old son. "No bail has been set or nothing. He's a young man who's been thrown in jail again and again, and he just has to take it."
After the attack on Barker, Bell was originally charged with attempted murder, but the charges were reduced and he was convicted of battery. An appeals court threw that conviction out, saying Bell should not have been tried as an adult on that charge.
Racial tensions began rising in August 2006 in Jena after a black student sat under a tree known as a gathering spot for white students. Three white students later hung nooses from the tree. They were suspended but not prosecuted.
More than 20,000 demonstrators gathered recently in Jena to protest what they perceive as differences in how black and white suspects are treated. The case has drawn the attention of civil rights activists including the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
"We feel this was a cruel and unusual punishment," said Sharpton, who was instrumental in organizing the protest held on Sept. 20, the day Bell was originally supposed to be sentenced in the case.
Bell's parents were also ordered to pay all court costs and witness costs, Sharpton said.
"I don't know what we're going to do," Jones said. "I don't know how we're going to pay for any of this. I don't know how we're going to get through this."
Bell and the other five defendants have been charged in connection with the attack on Barker, which left him unconscious and bleeding with facial injuries. According to court testimony, he was repeatedly kicked by a group of students at the high school.
Barker was treated for three hours at an emergency room but was able to attend a school function that evening, authorities have said.
Bell, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and Theo Shaw were all initially charged - as adults - with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit the same. A sixth defendant was charged in the case as a juvenile.
Bell, who was 16 at the time, was convicted in June of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit that crime. LaSalle Parish prosecutor Reed Walters reduced the charges just before the trial. Since then, both of those convictions were dismissed and tossed back to juvenile court, where they now are being tried.
Charges against Bailey, 18, Jones, 19, and Shaw, 18, have been reduced to aggravated second-degree battery. Purvis, 18, has not yet been arraigned.
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WHY?
A black artist hung the Confederate Battle Flag upside down in a noose on a scaffold and it was shown at museums in Gettysburg and Tallahasse, Florida.
WHY?
Puzzle Games I have downloaded on my computer like Mysterville and such have nooses in the scences.
WHY?
Cowboy movies have lynchings from cattle rustlers.
I never thought about black lynchings as none ever happened in my life time so why do you think these 12-14 year old white kids would think of hanging blacks. If they had put a black doll in the noose then you would be justified in your thinking.
This is a rodeo town and rope is their thing!
Guess who is teaching lynchings
First Graders Get Lynched In %u2018Jena 6 Protest
Read the proof below of how black colleges teach little children about the NOOSE BOOGEY MAN so they can grow up and play the race card!
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/grambling-teaches-elementary-kids-lynching
Lynchings: By State and Race, 1882-1968 * (86 years)
State White Black Total
Alabama 48 299 347
Arizona 31 0 31
Arkansas 58 226 284
California 41 2 43
Colorado 65 3 68
Delaware 0 1 1
Florida 25 257 282
Georgia 39 492 531
Idaho 20 0 20
Illinois 15 19 34
Indiana 33 14 47
Iowa 17 2 19
Kansas 35 19 54
Kentucky 63 142 205
Louisiana 56 335 391
Maine 1 0 1
Maryland 2 27 29
Michigan 7 1 8
Minnesota 5 4 9
Mississippi 42 539 581
Missouri 53 69 122
Montana 82 2 84
Nebraska 52 5 57
Nevada 6 0 6
New Jersey 1 1 2
New Mexico 33 3 36
New York 1 1 2
North Carolina 15 86 101
North Dakota 13 3 16
Ohio 10 16 26
Oklahoma 82 40 122
Oregon 20 1 21
Pennsylvania 2 6 8
South Carolina 4 156 160
South Dakota 27 0 27
Tennessee 47 204 251
Texas 141 352 493
Utah 6 2 8
Vermont 1 0 1
Virginia 17 83 100
Washington 25 1 26
West Virginia 20 28 48
Wisconsin 6 0 6
Wyoming 30 5 35
Total 1,297 3,446 4,743
*Statistics provided by the Archives at Tuskegee Institute.
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/shipp
ynchingsstate.html
Lynchings: By State and Race, 1882-1968 * (86 years)
State White Black Total
Total 1,297 3,446 4,743
*Statistics provided by the Archives at Tuskegee Institute.
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/shipp
ynchingsstate.html
I don''t think they will be coming after you unless you do something really really horrendous and contemptible
It could be another black that comes to lynches you!
Oh, yea, why did that boy ask in a school assembly to sit under that tree? Naacp Set Up?
Lynchings: By State and Race, 1882-1968 * (86 years)
State White Black Total
Total 1,297 3,446 4,743
*Statistics provided by the Archives at Tuskegee Institute.
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/shipp
ynchingsstate.html
I don''t think they will be coming after you unless you do something really really horrendous and contemptible
It could be another black that comes to lynches you!
Oh, yea, why did that boy ask in a school assembly to sit under that tree? Naacp Set Up?
And for those of you who did not know that is what they would do to African people during the days of slavery. They would hang them. That is obviously an offensive thing and the Caucasian kid%u2019s knew that.
Hanging a noose on a tree is equivalent to waving a gun in someone%u2019s face and saying I%u2019m going to shoot you. Both are death threats. And for what? Oh yeah sitting under a tree.
Oh yes and what were those three Caucasian%u2019s student%u2019s punishments?
%u201C...suspended but not prosecuted.%u201D
The Jena 6 are not completely innocent either. But 18 months is most defiantly an excessive amount of time for beating someone. It%u2019s completely unfair. Not to mention that he was tried by and all white trial in a clearly racist town.
The boy that was beaten was able to attend a school function the day after so he must not have been beaten that badly.
And for those of you who did not know that is what they would do to African people during the days of slavery. They would hang them. That is obviously an offensive thing and the Caucasian kid%u2019s knew that.
Hanging a noose on a tree is equivalent to waving a gun in someone%u2019s face and saying I%u2019m going to shoot you. Both are death threats. And for what? Oh yeah sitting under a tree.
Oh yes and what were those three Caucasian%u2019s student%u2019s punishments?
%u201C...suspended but not prosecuted.%u201D
The Jena 6 are not completely innocent either. But 18 months is most defiantly an excessive amount of time for beating someone. It%u2019s completely unfair. Not to mention that he was tried by and all white trial in a clearly racist town.
The boy that was beaten was able to attend a school function the day after so he must not have been beaten that badly.
And for those of you who did not know that is what they would do to African people during the days of slavery. They would hang them. That is obviously an offensive thing and the Caucasian kid%u2019s knew that.
Hanging a noose on a tree is equivalent to waving a gun in someone%u2019s face and saying I%u2019m going to shoot you. Both are death threats. And for what? Oh yeah sitting under a tree.
Oh yes and what were those three Caucasian%u2019s student%u2019s punishments?
%u201C...suspended but not prosecuted.%u201D
The Jena 6 are not completely innocent either. But 18 months is most defiantly an excessive amount of time for beating someone. It%u2019s completely unfair. Not to mention that he was tried by and all white trial in a clearly racist town.
The boy that was beaten was able to attend a school function the day after so he must not have been beaten that badly.
Posted by zoltaric at 10:42 AM : Oct 13, 2007
you and these comments are not needed.