Friends of Justice
3415 Ainsworth Court, Arlington, TX 76016 817.457.0025
https://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com

Thankfully, we’re getting past the, “Is Jena the most racist town in America?” question. Jena is America. No one would be talking about the Jena 6 were it not for the bizarre behavior of District Attorney (and lay preacher) Reed Walters, the prosecutor who told students at the Jena High School that he could make their lives disappear with a stroke of his pen. Moments earlier, black students had occupied the “white tree” at Jena High School. White students and white police officers had surrounded the protestors. Push was coming to shove. Tension was high. Mr. Walters aimed his grotesque threat at the black students responsible for organizing the impromptu protest under the now-famous tree.

At a mid-June hearing, Reed Walters explained that he was highly frustrated when he made the remark. In his opinion, the black students were making a mountain out of a molehill. Superintendent Roy Breithaupt was asserting that the white boys who hung nooses from the tree in the school courtyard were guilty of nothing more serious than a childish prank. Mr. Walters agreed. Black students, and the black parents who had gathered at a black Baptist church the previous evening to voice their outrage and consider their options, were equally out of line. Walters explained that he wanted to put a stop to the madness–hence the “stroke of my pen” comment.

A few weeks ago, Scott Henson and his excellent Gritsforbreakfast blog featured an article naming the ten worst prosecutors in America. Topping the list was Alberto Gonzales, the late Attorney General of these United States. Running a close second was Terry McEachern, the architect of the debacle in Tulia, Texas. (I devoted four long years of my life to a running critique of McEachern before he was finally disciplined by the Texas Bar Association). The third worst prosecutor in America, according to the article, was Mike Nifong–currently doing a 24-hour stretch for contempt–who was disbarred for his disgraceful conduct in the Duke Lacrosse imbroglio. Number four, was Charles Foti, the Louisiana Attorney General.

If the list of America’s worst prosecutors comes out again next year, I except Reed Walters will make the top three. Walters is not incompetent (his prosecuting skills are probably a touch above average); but his world view renders him incapable of discharging his legal obligation: seeing that justice is done. As this column from the traditionally conservative Washington Times suggests, pundits across the nation are asking pointed questions about Mr. Walters’ fitness for service.

Is Jena America’s most racist community? I seriously doubt it. Does Jena need a new prosecutor and a new school superintendent? Unquestionably!

Alan Bean
Friends of Justice
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http://video1.washingtontimes.com/debose/2007/09/another_prosecutor_out_on_a_li.html

Another prosecutor out on a limb?
In Durham, N.C., today, disgraced former District Attorney Mike Nifong
reported
<http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/duke_lacrosse/nifong/story/695424.html> for a brief (but symbolically important, we’re told) 24-hour
term behind bars.

In the Duke rape case, Nifong showed how a rogue prosecutor can ruin lives.
Now some folks say something similar is unfolding in Jena, La. <http://> , a
small town of about 3,000 in the northeast section of the state.

The case centers around Jena High School and a shade tree in the center of
the courtyard.

For years, only white students sat under the tree at lunch. Then, about this
time last year, Sept. 1, a black student asked the assistant principal and
other faculty members during an assembly if he could sit under the tree and
was promptly told to “sit where ever he liked.”

The next day the student did, and the day after three hangman’s nooses
appeared on the tree.

That lit the fuse.

Outraged black students tried to stage peaceful protests, but fights broke
out on and off the school grounds.

LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters, asked to speak to a school
assembly as part of the effort to defuse the situation, “told students
<http://pursuingholiness.com/2007/07/31/jena-6-jena-high-white-tree-cut-down
/<br /> to stop making trouble as he could end their lives “with the stroke
of a pen.”

But tensions boiled over in December, when six black students beat Justin
Barker, a white student, who fell during the attack, hit his head and
suffered a concussion. Barker was treated and released that day, but the
prosecutor in Jena decided to charge the boys who would become known as the
“Jena Six” with attempted murder.

So far, only one of the “Jena Six,” Mycheal Bell, has been convicted (by an
all-white jury, on charges of battery and conspiracy to commit battery). He
is to be sentenced on Sept. 20, when he could face a maximum sentence of
almost 23 years.

After what happened at Duke, people in Jena and people around the country
following the case are asking
<http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/324177_amygoodman19.html> why would
a prosecutor issue a threat like Walters did? Was his comment aimed at black
students specifically?

Yes, fights at school are reprehensible, but what purpose could possibly be
served by charging these teen-agers with attempted murder?

And if Mike Nifong’s questionable and inflammatory statements against the
innocent white Duke lacrosse players led to his disbarment, shouldn’t Mr.
Walters — who has refused to talk to reporters about his comments to the
assembly — have to explain his actions?

— Brian DeBose, national political reporter, The Washington Times
Posted on September 7, 2007 12:22 PM