Action Requested!: Racial Tensions in Jena, LA - Nooses Hung Under a "White's Only" Tree at HS

by: demfan313

Fri Jul 06, 2007 at 11:35:30 AM EDT

Please Sign and Support the Civil Rights Petition that will be sent to the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

In September 2006, a group of African American high school students in Jena, Louisiana asked the school for permission to sit beneath a "whites only" shade tree. There was an unwritten rule that blacks couldn't sit beneath the tree. The school said they didn't care where students sat. The next day, students arrived at school to see three nooses (in school colors) hanging from the tree.

The boys who hung the nooses were suspended from school for a few days. The school administration chalked it up as a harmless prank, but Jena's black population didn't take it so lightly. Fights and unrest started breaking out at school. The District Attorney, Reed Walters, was called in to directly address black students at the school and told them all he could "end their life with a stroke of the pen."

UPDATE:
June 26, 2007

All-white jury likely to hear racial fight case in Louisiana

An all-white jury was seated Tuesday to hear the case against the first of the "Jena Six" - a group of black youths accused of beating a white fellow student amid racial discord at a Louisiana school.

Five women and a man will hear opening arguments Wednesday morning at the courthouse in LaSalle Parish, Louisiana, where the black population is only about 12 percent.

"I'm sure I can get a fair trial," Blane Williams, defense lawyer for 17-year-old Mychale Bell said. "You can't tell me there aren't six people in this town who won't listen fairly and do the right thing. I think people have a tendency to do the right thing."

The approaching trial had led to allegations of racism from parents of the accused, who said the original charges - attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder - were out of proportion to the crime. The charges carry a combined sentence of 80 years.

However, prosecutors on Monday reduced the charges for Bell, the first of the teens to go on trial, to aggravated second-degree battery, which carries a sentence of up to 15 years, and conspiracy to commit aggravated second-degree battery, which carries a maximum sentence of 7 1/2 years.

UPDATE:
June 26, 2007

'Jena Six' defendant convicted
After deliberating for less than three hours Thursday, an all-white jury of six returned with a unanimous guilty verdict on the highest possible charges for the first member of the "Jena Six" to face trial.

Mychal Bell, 17, could be as old as 40 when released from jail if given the maximum sentence for aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit that crime -- more than 22 years. He was 16 when the incident took place.

Please Sign and Support the Civil Rights Petition that will be sent to the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Bell is one of six black teens charged in a Dec. 4 fight at Jena High School that left Justin Barker -- white -- unconscious. The attack and arrests have made headlines from Chicago to China and have been held up as the culmination of racial unrest in Jena. Bell and the others arrested -- Theo Shaw, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and an unnamed juvenile -- were charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit the same, although Bell's charges were reduced Monday without explanation just before the trial started.

Defense Attorney Blane Williams said Thursday that an appeal already is planned and that the case may one day end up being discussed in law schools. "I feel I put on the best defense I could," he said in response to criticism of not presenting any witnesses or evidence during the trial. "I did the best I could for my client, Mychal Bell."

Cleveland Riser Jr., the former assistant schools superintendent for LaSalle Parish, said he thinks Bell received proper representation from Williams, although some of Bell's family and friends disagreed. "Why open the door for further accusations?" he said of Williams not calling any witnesses to testify. "Why get opinions that have nothing to do with the current situation?"

Vivian Thompson, a Bell family friend, said Bell "didn't stand a chance" with a LaSalle Parish jury. She was upset with Williams and said his first argument should have been for a change of venue. "Blacks do not stand a chance here," she said of Jena. "I want to see justice. This wasn't it." Bell's aunt, Sandra Simmons, said the verdict "hurt" the family and that she is concerned about the future of the other boys facing trial. "They are going to hang all them boys," she said.

During Williams' closing statements, he alluded to the attention the case has garnered both locally and worldwide. "This is a trial of Mychal Bell," he said, raising his voice. "It ain't a trial of LaSalle Parish. It ain't a trial of Jena. It ain't a trial of anything else on people's mind. ... Things have a tendency to get blown out of proportion. Step outside of the courtroom, and you'll see blown out of proportion." Williams also stressed that Bell was presumed innocent until LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters proved that Bell committed all the elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Walters didn't do that job, he said.

But Walters said he was confident he did his job proving that the four elements of the crime were present -- use of force, use of a dangerous weapon, intent and causing serious bodily injury. The weapon, he said, was the shoes used to kick Barker, although only one witness testified that she saw Bell kicking Barker.

Please Sign and Support the Civil Rights Petition that will be sent to the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

more links:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/6685441.stm
http://www.michaeldavidmurphy.com/jena