It was high drama at the LaSalle Parish courthouse today. Those of you who have been following this story will remember that six defendants have been charged with second degree attempted murder after a violent altercation at Jena High School left a white student unconscious. No one sustained serious injuries in the fight, but District Attorney, Reed Walters, seemed determined to put the perpetrators behind bars for between 25 and 100 years. Mykal Bell, the defendant accused of throwing the first punch at Jena High School in early December, was expected to accept a plea offer today. Mykal has been talking to his mother (who is in favor of any deal that gets her boy back to the free world) and a father who fully understands how deep a hole DA Reed Walters has dug for himself. Mykal has now been incarcerated for half a year, but he hasn’t lost his pride. Asked if he was willing to plead guilty to the reduced charge of aggravated assault, the star athlete shook his head and said he wanted to go to trial. This was not the way the script was written. According to eyewitnesses, Reed Walters could be heard in the hallway berating Mykals’s mother. “He changed his mind,” she reportedly told the DA, “what could I do?”
So this case goes to trial, beginning with jury selection tomorrow. All defendants now face the reduced charge of aggravated assault. This is a partial victory for Friends of Justice, the ACLU of Louisiana, and the Jena chapter of the NAACP–the coalition that his been calling for the District Attorney to back away from the jaw-dropping charges he initially filed. But aggravated assault is still a felony charge, and even if the defendants escape with probated sentences their lives will never be the same. Any minor slip-up could land them behind bars. A college education will become illusive because felons are denied all forms of federal assistance. Most decent jobs are unattainable for felons. And so it goes. We are calling the District Attorney to drop the charges to simple battery–the same charge filed against the boy who attacked defendant Robert Bailey at a dance short days before the incident at the school. Then there is the issue of the all-white jury that will almost certainly be selected tomorrow. We aren’t where we need to be, but we have traveled miles from where we were when this fight began–and in the right direction.
Serious questions are raised by reports that Reed Walters initiated contact with at least two members of Mykal Bell’s family. I have been told that Mykal’s mother and grandmother have been told that Mykal may spend the rest of his life behind bars if he doesn’t take a plea. In theory, prosecutors are supposed to communicate with defendants indirectly, through a defense attorney. Threatening a defendant’s family members comes perilously close to threatening a defendant. Prosecutors, however, are rarely held to strict standards of accountability. So long as they can keep a case out of the public eye, Chubby Checker’s famous question applies: “how low can you go?” The answer, in most cases, is: “As low as I wanna go.” District attorneys are rarely sanctioned, no matter how egregious their behavior. Things change, however, when the media pays attention–as we have recently seen in the Duke Lacrosse case.
Media attention is again riveted on this central Louisiana town. The Chicago Tribune is considering an update, a second TV network form Britain is paying attention, and CNN will broadcast its Jena feature on Paula Zahn’s NOW program this evening between 7:00 and 8:00 (central). This is probably just the beginning. Reed Walters has helped himself by backing away from the bizarre charges he initially filed; but once the media genii is out of the bottle, it’s hard to stuff him back in.
Alan Bean
Friends of Justice
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Saw the piece on cnn, was proud to know you guys, work has been paying off
I shot the video of the rally & interviews for Community Dender TV shown on public access channels 15 & 16 in Lafayette, LA
I am a resident of LaSalle Parish and have followed this case from the beginning. I am also an african american. This is not a case of race but rather a case of 6 individuals who obviously committed a savage crime against a single student. That victim happened to be white and those charged happened to be african american. This time of action should not be tolerated under any circumstance in any court system especially in the United States. I believe the District Attorney, Reed Walters, is absolutely doing the right thing in aggressively prosecuting these 6 individuals. Although LaSalle Parish is predominately white, this issue of racial persecution that the ACLU and other organizations are protesting is completely absurd. They are attempting to defer the attention of the public from the crime committed. Protests are being used to pressure the D.A. to lessen or drop these charges. Anyone who can defend the action of kicking and stomping the head of an unconsious teenage boy as he lie motionless on the ground in front of other students, as members of the Jena 6 are reported to have done, must be prosecuted to the furthest extent of the law, REGARDLESS OF RACE. I have great respect for Reed Walters for doing what he feels is right in not giving in to pressure from the ACLU and other organizations. These rediculous protests are claiming this is not fair, however, a teenager was nearly beaten to death at the hands of these 6 individuals. Put that in any context you want and tell me they shouldn’t be charged with attempted murder. We are a minority but that does not but us above the law nor does it give us the right to commit crimes such as this without expecting to suffer the appropriate consequences. As hard as it is to say, this has all the makings of a hate crime. Tougher laws are now instituted to prosecute hate crimes more aggressively than most cases. Many minority group have pushed for such sanction to be imposed. This may ultimately back-fire in this case. I hope this is read by as many people as it takes to stop the wrongful perception placed on this case and D.A. Reed Walters by the media and other entities. Reed Walters has served LaSalle Parish with class, dignity, and an upmost respect for the law. He will do what should be done regardless of pressure from these minority groups and the media. We as african americans have fought for out rights since we first gained freedom. It is now time we should not use race as a crutch to fall back on. To all of you who say “Free The Jena 6”, I say listen to the facts of the case as it unfolds and make an unbiased assessment. If these individuals are inicent, it will be proven in court, NOT during these protests. Thank you and I hope you have a greater appreciation for this case and this community.
Mr. Bean,
I’ve been posting updates about the case at my blog. Thank you for your work!
I do have one question–above, you noted that all the young men now face reduced charges, but the Monroe News Star reports that only Mr. Bell’s charges have been reduced. Any clarification?
Thank you!
This is in response to the ridiculous comments from that misinformed “resident of LaSalle Parish.” Learn to read and then learn to spell! You are sadly mistaken about the “members of Jena Six” as you have so ignorantly referred to the boys involved in this case as if it were a fraternity. Only three of them were involved the fight. The young man who was beaten was NOT seriously injured and in fact was released after 2 hours at the hospital, and even attended a ring ceremony later that day. His ego may have been a little bruised, but he’s OK! The boys who are going to trial should not be charged with a felony by any stretch of the law. The issue here is a tremendous abuse of power on the part of the DA. The charges are completely disproportionate and some of those charged were not even involved in the altercation…a school yard fight spawned by racism! Ma’am, you need to get a clue because racism is real and it is alive and well in LaSalle Parish as well as in the rest of America. I was born there and my Grandmother still resides in Jena. I was only exposed to the case today and immediately sat down and read every report that I could find and called some family member in Jena after I saw the story on CNN. I am embarrassed and saddened by the whole situation and pray that the lives of these young men are not ruined forever as has been the case countless times before. If you think these young men are going to get a fair trial, I feel sorry for you!
I wish someone would print more of the truth and not what people want to hear.
Boys will be boys, these type of fights happen all the time plus the boy who was not hurt badly at all allegedly had hung a noose from a schoolyard tree the day before.
“I am a resident of LaSalle Parish and have followed this case from the beginning. I am also an african american.”
You’re lying.
I only heard about this case Sunday on a local Baton Rouge radio proram but I am beside myself that the State of Louisiana could act so irresponsible. From the conversation details that the mother gave via the radio,she never told the DA she had any intentions of her son pleading to a lesser charge. Some of the remarks that she said were told to them should be grounds for disbarment by the State. Some comments that were said to be made should go before an ethics board some where and corrective action taken aganist the parties.
Who do we need to notify of this case so that more national attention can be put on this subject? What federal agencies need to be contacted? This has to be balanced.
Please do not get me wrong, action for the initial fight needs to be taken but this is more than extreme and needs to be brought to the light.
John said:
I wish the same thing you do. Nearly every media outlet who has written this story has left out facts that seriously water done the racist bite of this story.
I think racism is wrong, but I think this issue has been blown way out of proportion. If anything, maybe it will point out the pockets of racism that exist all throughout the South. But to try to condemn a whole town and consider them racist is simply ignorant. The vast majority of people in this town are good people who gauge a person’s self worth and value by their deeds and actions, not by the color of their skin.
Just more evidence that the United States government may have won the Civil War, but that the post-Reconstruction, Jim Crow way of being is alive and well.
Case Exposed post above is rediculous. Are they serious. The writer coudn’t possibly be an african american resident of Lasalle Parish. Whoever you are quit posing. This case is an outrage. J.Walter Reeds needs to be ousted. He is a backwoods district attorney. Your little town of Jena is trying to preserve the good ole boy lifestyle. Get over It. That time is gone.White supremacy is over. The federal government needs to come down their and put Reeds away for 22 years. I’m sure tho whole town is not completely racist but If they let this kind of seperatism go on they might as well be. A white only tree. A town that is populated by 4000 residents with a white side and black side. They hardly socialize with each other on a personal level. How can you not be racist. How many mixed couples walk the streets their? HMMN probably none. Seprerate proms are they serious. Hanging nooses, that is no prank. These kids learn this kind of behavior from their parents. I bet Reeds kids don’t have any black close freinds. That is really said with such a small population. But, that explains the small minds that reside in Jena. Too bad. I’m so glad that there will be bus loads of african americans descending on their town,on september 20th. Wake up Jena we are a coming.
Please:
“Case Exposed post above is rediculous. Are they serious. The writer coudn’t possibly be an african american resident of Lasalle Parish”
I agree in questioning who Case Exposed is. I haven’t heard anyone from the black population have that point of view about the situation.
“J.Walter Reeds needs to be ousted”
His name is Reed Walters. And I’ll bet you LOTS of money his sons have black friends.
“They hardly socialize with each other on a personal level.”
Absolutely not true, most people in Jena have friendships that cross racial boundaries.
“Hanging nooses, that is no prank.”
I think the white students meant it as a prank. But even under those circumstances, they should have been expelled from school.
“Wake up Jena we are a coming.”
Better bring lunches of your own and gas up, because if you roll into town hungry, without a place to sleep, and no gas, you’ll end up making the business owners in Jena rich!
I am a black female in Columbia South Carolina. I just heard of this case 2 days ago on the radio. I am outraged. I is so disappointing to know that the community is not stepping up and speaking out against the racism. THIS IS RACISM. I have never heard of anything like this before. To have a school house fight be turned into an aggravated assault case is extreme. I am a mother of two sons and I would not allow this to happen to my children. This is where the NAACP should step in and protest. Martin Luther King Jr. fought for equality and it is 2007 and there are still people who have a “white only tree”. This is America and despite what people may feel this country was not built by white people. It was built by the hands of African American women and men. I say that the Jena6 boys should be punished for their actions a simple 5 day suspension from school. However, they should not be sent to prison. FREE JENA6
Don’t worry From Jena:
“Better bring lunches of your own and gas up, because if you roll into town hungry, without a place to sleep, and no gas, you’ll end up making the business owners in Jena rich!”
Thanks for the heads up but I think we have that covered and his name is J. Reed Walters.
I am from Baltimore and I think that its outrageous that this is allowed in the so called land of the free. We have young men and women fighting in Iraq right now for this freedom. What do you think those people are thinking of their America who can’t get along with each other? What am I fighting for would be my question.If I saw a noose hanging on a tree, what am I suppose to think with it’spast history of what a noose represents. Boys will be boys? Bull!! Those boys grow up into racist men. It’s not ok to beat another but it’s not ok to threaten someones life. The noose was a blantant threat. It was not a joke. RACISM is alive and at the fore front in Jena. Why was there an all white jury? Why is the DA threathening children? This should have been nipped in the bud when the noose was hung. No administrator stepped in to say anything because they know what the noose represents too. They just thought thay they would ignore it. As administrators and leaders they had a duty to step up so that something like this would not get out of hand. In retrospect some of the administrators are as guilty as the ones who hung the noose and the ones who acted on it. You black Americans in anywhere who says that the DA is correct, the only reason why you say that is because it’s not your son.WRONG. They are all our sons. Wake up and smell the coffe.
Be Blessed and Pray for America
L.M.
Maybe its time for John Grisham to write a new novel. This time, in Louisiana.
This type of stuff is happening all to often. What is justice in America? I love this country and I’d die for it if need be. I have been in the military my entire adult life, have friends of all races. Some things are getting better, but we still have work to do. Hate isn’t the answer, it won’t solve anything and plays into their hands. We have to educate our youth to think first and then act. Violence isn’t going to work, all it does is play into “their” hands. The DA was hoping we would act that way, and what did we do. We have to get smart and fight a different way, the media is our best weapon, shame these people into doing the right thing. It takes a little longer but in the long run it is the only way to win. An exposed racist in DOA in politics, and it show the hidden ones that need to follow the rules or they will end their careers with there actions also. Don’t allow another young black american to end his life fighting a fight he can’t win in the long run. Parents please talk, plead or beg do whatever it takes to teach our children that there is a cost to every action.
The person above who expressed their thoughts under the user name of “case exposed” said she was an African-American who resides in Jena. Well I think one description was left out, because she apparently works for this joker of a D.A., or perhaps the person is one of those big smiling mouths that reaks of yassah boss or yessum ( in other words, a sell-out)! Give me a royal break…yes, we have the intelligence and the intellect to realize that a violent act should not be condoned, but which violent act? One just brought on the other. If a fight insued, suspension should have followed; if nooses were hung, the proper authorities on hate crimes should have been called. The people (all people) of Jena allowed this to brew to the boiling point. Something should have been done long before the boys decided to sit under the forbidden tree that should never have existed. That just makes my blood boil…the fact that anyone in this day and age has the audacity to take God’s creation and decide who can and cannot enjoy the shade of that creation is totally unacceptable. I must stop now, because I may say some things that would not be very ladylike!
This is a disgrace and sets back positive relation ships that minorities and non monorities have developed and worked to maintain. These young men need to be left alone and live their lives, and as fars as the white boy with the loaded shot gun on school property he should go to jail for a very long time, and because he is white but because he was wrong
to Jena 6″ case exposed said-that fact that you are from Lasalle Parish and did not have a problem with the concept of the white tree tells me that your point of view is skewed! savage crime?!? they beat him up, they did not sodomize him or tie him up and rape him for days. I hardly call it savage. Is every school fight savage?!? I am glad that the rest of Black America does not feel like you. They have you so brain washed that you can’t even see racism when you are right in the mist of it! FYI-this is racism. why is it that only the black students have been charged? A white student pulled a gun on an African American student and the African American student gets charged with stealing the gun!!! are you kidding me? what the hell is that except racism. Even if the mainstream white media doesn’t cover it, I am glad to see US come out to Jena and show America and the world that this is racism and we are not going to stand by and take it!
A handful of white boys reputedly hang nooses in a Louisiana tree, and the black community comes unglued? Give me a break, Negroes:
Your rate of illegitimacy is hovering at 76 percent, your crime rates are going through the ceiling, you’re aborting your unborns at a genuinely phenomenal rate of 600,000 annually, and you can’t pass elementary 9th Grade English as a prerequisite to college entry. Looks like “The Bell Curve” had it right all along.
Worry more about the issues that truly matter, what say? And do listen less to Sharpton and Jackson, two of most outrageously authoritarian black-Nazis ever to roam American streets.
Michael Cousins your comment is just wrong. Why participate with nothing constructive to bring to the conversation. The three American young men who struck another American young man deseve to be punished. The severity of there punishment is the issue. Attempted murder is a ridiculous charge for a school yard brawl. Mr. Cousins what are “your crime rates” or “your illegitimacy?” We are all americans. You and people like you are the reason Jena, Louisiana has come unglued. Not a kid getting beat up or nooses hanging from trees, but the ignorance that you have displyed here are the real reason this is a national issue in 2007.
No you’re not black and if you are you are exactly the type of dissensitized negro with the same slave mentality that was ever so prevalent in the 1800’s. WAKE UP! The charges filed against these teenage boys were absoultely asinine.
If Justin Barker was almost beaten to death then why is it that he attended a social gathering that same night? You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all of the time. Try convincing some one else!
LOL! They were lying and it was so blatantly obvious. They must really think we are stupid! GRRR!!!