Cross posted at Daily Kingfish
This is an update to the unfolding scandal up in Jena, Louisiana. For a detailed discussion of events leading up to the fight between black students and the white students that led to the charges filed against the black students, click here to a previous post by Lamar White Jr, and to Pursuing Holiness, which has done an excellent job of covering the mess up in Jena.
Here's a brief explanation of events so far, thanks to Pursuing Holiness:
In Jena, Louisiana, a black student challenged the de facto segregation of his high school by asking permission to sit under the "white tree." School officials told him to sit where he liked. The next day three nooses hung from the tree, which triggered an impromptu protest by the black students of Jena High.
LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters, flanked by the police, informed the black students at an assembly later that day that he could end their lives "with the stroke of a pen."
Racial tensions grew, the school’s academic wing was burned, and Robert Bailey, a black student, was attacked by a group of whites at a party. One person was charged with a misdemeanor for that beating. The next day Bailey and two friends were threatened with a shotgun at a convenience store by Matt Windham, a white man who had been present at the beating. They wrestled the gun away from him and ran to report the incident to the police, who charged them with robbery of the shotgun.
Finally at school two days later, a group of white students, including the noose hangers, taunted Bailey and other students, calling them "niggers." A white student was beaten by a group of black students, taken to the hospital and released within three hours. He attended a school function that night.
Six black students were charged with second degree attempted murder for the fight. The first to be tried was Mychal Bell, whose public defender put on no case, called no witnesses, and permitted a friend of the DA, the mother of a prosecution witness, and a good friend of the victim’s mother, to be empaneled on the six person jury. Bell was quickly found guilty. Robert Bailey, Theodore Shaw, Carwin Jones, and Bryant Purvis are still waiting to be tried. The sixth of the Jena Six is in the juvenile justice system.
On the first day of Mychal Bell's trial, LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters lowered the charges against Bell to 2nd degree aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit the same. The charge is problematic ... for this is what Louisiana's criminal statutes define as aggravated second degree battery:
§34.7. Aggravated second degree battery
A.(1) Aggravated second degree battery is a battery committed with a dangerous weapon when the offender intentionally inflicts serious bodily injury.
(2) For purposes of this Section, "serious bodily injury" means bodily injury which involves unconsciousness, extreme physical pain or protracted and obvious disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty, or a substantial risk of death.
B. Whoever commits the crime of aggravated second degree battery shall be fined not more than ten thousand dollars or imprisoned, with or without hard labor, for not more than fifteen years, or both.
The reason that I find these charges problematic is that the student who was allegedly beaten was seen at a school function that night. If he was so badly beaten to the point of meeting the standard of "serious bodily injury" quoted above, how was able to attend the class ring ceremony that night?
Further, Mychal Bell's public defender did not call up ONE witness in support of Mr. Bell's defense, including a Coach Benjy Lewis who said that he saw another student knock out the white student with a punch from behind.
The update to this trial is that Mychal Bell has a new legal team, Monroe defense attorneys Louis Scott, Bob Noel, Peggy Sullivan and Lee Perkins. They requested that the court move the sentencing date so they would have enough time to file motions that must be done prior to sentencing. I will be attempting to get a hold of a copy of the trial transcript, and put my Evidence class to good use. Stay tuned.