http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=7236750

ALEXANDRIA, La. — Two of the “Jena Six” defendants helped present the Video of the Year award on Black Entertainment Television’s Hip Hop Awards.

Katt Williams, a comedian and host of the show broadcast Thurdsay night, introduced Carwin Jones and Bryant Purvis as two of the students involved in a case of “systematic racism.”

“By no means are we condoning a six-on-one beat-down,” Williams said during his introduction of the teens, accused of knocking a white student unconscious and then kicking and stamping on him. “… But the injustice perpetrated on these young men is straight criminal.”

Attempted murder charges against each defendant charged as an adult have been reduced to aggravated second-degree battery at arraignment; Purvis is the only one yet to be arraigned.

Jones and Purvis got a standing ovation as they walked onto the stage at the Atlanta Civic Center, where the awards show was filmed on Saturday. “They don’t look so tough, do they?” Williams joked.

Both Jones and Purvis thanked a number of people, including family, friends, the “Hip-Hop Nation” and the thousands who participated in a march and rally in their small hometown.

Purvis said the Sept. 20 rally proved “our generation can unite and rally around a cause.”

Purvis handed Kanye West the award for his video for “Stronger.” West shook hands with both teens.

Some people commenting on BET’s Web site have criticized the appearance, saying the teens _ accused of knocking Justin Barker unconscious and then stamping on and kicking him until another student intervened _ shouldn’t be made celebrities. “If anything, they should be humbled and go home and not be trying to get celebrity status off a tragedy,” one person wrote.

Another wrote, “this is what I was protesting for! So that later you could show up at the BET awards and style and profile?”

Tina Jones, Purvis’ mother, said BET contacted the Jena Six families to come to the awards show “to get away for a relaxing weekend.”

Also attending were Mychal Bell’s father, Marcus Jones; Carwin Jones’ parents, John Jenkins and Dwanda Jones; and Theo McCoy, the father of Theo Shaw, another defendant.

“You can’t get caught up in what people say,” Tina Jones said. “They are going to say something no matter what you do.”

She said her son was most excited about meeting rappers Birdman and Lil Wayne.

Bill Furlow, a spokesman for LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters, said the boys had a judge’s permission to attend the ceremony.

Purvis’ attorney, Darrell Hickman, declined to comment about his client’s appearance and said he doesn’t know of any others scheduled in the future. Neither Carwin Jones’ attorney, Mike Nunnery, nor Barker’s family returned calls Thursday.

Mychal Bell, who was 16 at the time of the Dec. 4 attack, is the only defendant tried so far. He was tried as an adult, but a state appeal court ruled that aggravated battery is not a charge on which a juvenile can be tried as adult and returned his case to juvenile court.

Purvis, Carwin Jones, Robert Bailey and Theo Shaw all were 17 at the time of the attack, and legally adult in Louisiana. The sixth defendant’s case has been in juvenile court all along.

Bell is currently at the Renaissance Home for Youth in Alexandria, the Rev. B.L. Moran of Jena said.

Bell had spent almost 10 months in a LaSalle Parish adult jail before he was released on bail last month. Two weeks later, he was sent back to juvenile custody for 18 months because a judge found he had violated terms of his probation for a previous juvenile conviction.