Friends:
Many of you have read my reflection on the Mychal Bell trial, which I posted on the blog. Several people told me that the Jessica Hooter who testified during the trial was the daughter of the Ms. Hooter who was on the jury. A journalist following up on my report has discovered that this is probably not the case. Since I wasn’t in Jena for jury selection, and don’t know any of the Hooters personally, I should have phrased this information more cautiously, as in, “it is reported that . . .” I am still not sure the information I passed along is wrong, but I suspect it is and want to issue a retraction as quickly as possible. My apologies to the Hooter family and to anyone who read my report. This is yet another indication of how easily unsubstantiated rumors develop in the midst of controversy. It’s part of my job to distinguish fact from fiction and certainty from conjecture, and it appears that, in this case at least, I dropped the ball.

Alan Bean