Details About The Jena 6 Case

[admin]

DETAILS ABOUT THE JENA 6 CASE

This all began September 2006, when Black students challenged the school official about being able to sit under the WHITE TREE in the school yard! The official reportedly told the kids to feel free to sit wherever they wanted. The day after the black kids sat under the tree, three hangman’s nooses were found hanging from the tree.

The three white students responsible for hanging nooses in a tree in the school courtyard were punished with a few days of in-school suspension. The noose incident was dismissed as a childish prank. The following day, black students staged a spontaneous protest rally under the tree where the nooses had been discovered. Several black male athletes took the lead in this protest.….the same students who were eventually accused of attacking Justin Barker.

Shortly after that incident, District Attorney Reed Walters addressed an emergency school assembly called in response to the spontaneous student protest. With a dozen fully uniformed (and I’m assuming, armed) police officers in the auditorium, Walters warned protest organizers that with a stroke of his pen he could take their lives away. Walters has admitted under oath that he made this remark. His words were not aimed at the entire student body, nor at black students in general, he was speaking to the student athletes we now call the Jena 6. After the demonstration under the tree, Robert Bailey, Carwin Jones, Mychal Bell, Theodore Shaw, Jesse Beard and Bryant Ray Purvis became notorious.

In signed statements, several white and black students mentioned a series of verbal altercations during the lunch hour preceding the attack on Justin Barker. The trash-talking was directly related to a fight at the Fair Barn three days earlier. On that occasion, Robert Bailey and a few of his friends were invited to an all-white student party by some of their white friends. When Robert entered the building, he was punched in the face by a 22 year-old white male. In seconds, Robert was assaulted with beer bottles, punches and kicks in a virtual mirror image of the altercation at the high school three days later. The only differences were that the identity of the instigator in the Fair Barn incident was undisputed and that Robert remained conscious after the initial blow and was thus able to minimize the impact of the attack.

The following morning, Robert Bailey and two of the friends who had come to his aid during the Fair Barn assault were leaving a local convenience store when they encountered one of the country white males who had jumped Robert the night before. Fearing retaliation, the boy retreated to his truck and pulled out a pump-action, pistol-grip shotgun that looks like something the Terminator might have fancied. When Robert and his friends wrestled the weapon away from their would-be assailant they were charged with assault and theft. Once again, Jena’s New Jim Crow regime was reinforced.

The violent assault at the Fair Barn, the convenience store incident, and the assault at the school followed in the wake of a traumatic school fire in late November. Everyone associated with the school was in a state of shock akin to post traumatic stress syndrome. Concerned by the wave of violence, several teachers asked administrators not to reopen the school the Monday morning of the assault.

Student statements suggest that the student who attacked Justin Barker was responding to taunts that Robert Bailey “had his butt kicked” at the Fair Barn. In the course of this verbal jousting, several students report that Justin Barker “got up in Mychal’s face” and gave Mychal the finger. Tony Knapp, one of three boys who admitted to hanging nooses earlier in the school year, was also involved in this lunch hour altercation. At trial, District Attorney Reed Walters created the misleading impression that Barker was attacked by black thugs looking for a random white victim. He knew better…

* Several eyewitnesses recall that the initial punch was preceded by the shouted words, “This will teach you to run your mother f***ing mouth.” This statement, repeated by too many witnesses to be seriously doubted, makes no sense apart from the trash talking described in student statements.

Justin Cooper was the only witness at trial to testify that Mychal Bell kicked Justin Barker as the victim lay unconscious on the ground. Since Justin Cooper was one of the boys who admitted to hanging the nooses at Jena High School, is he a reliable witness?

Jessica Hooter was one of four trial witnesses who identified Mychal as the person who threw the first punch at Justin Barker. Two days after the assault occurred, Jessica was unable to identify the initial attacker. But as she explained at trial, “After I thought about it more, I remembered more.”
He was judged by an all white jury in a racial incident, I ask you as a white person, would you want to be judged by a jury of all blacks?

The single male juror graduated from High School with Justin Barker’s father.

There was very shady and conflicting witness testimony about who threw the punch and who instigated the fight.

Last but not least, the public defender, who represented Mychal Bell, who is black, never called a single witness in his defense, in fact, the parents were not even allowed into the court room until the verdict was in.

We need to become the Freedom Writers, Freedom callers, Freedom Marchers, and Freedom donators, because too many black, brown, and poor white people are getting the shaft in this so-called justice system!

[admin]

Partisan Witness in Jena Six Saga
by Warren Ballentine

* The ten student witnesses who testified at Mychal Bell’s trial were all white. In fact, most of them were part ofa distinct minority within the high school’s white student population who attended all-white schools in the country surrounding Jena until high School. (More on this below)

* Justin Cooper was the only witness at trial to testify that Mychal Bell kicked Justin Barker as the victim layunconscious on the ground. Since Justin Cooper was one of the boys who admitted to hanging the nooses at Jena High School at the beginning of the school year, he can hardly be seen as an objective or credible witness. Defense Attorney Blane Williams was apparently unaware of Cooper’s connection to the noose incident.

* Jessica Hooter was one of four trial witnesses who identified Mychal as the person who threw the first punch at Justin Barker. Two days after the assault occurred, Jessica was unable to identify the initial attacker. But as she explained at trial, “After I thought about it more, I remembered more.” In his closing remarks, Blane Williams never mentioned that she had embellished her earlier testimony. Perhaps he forgot.

* The single male juror graduated from High School with Justin Barker’s father. The tendency to sympathize with an old school buddy whosekid got punched and kicked in a one-sided assault is understandable. It also makes objectivity impossible.

* Midway through the trial, assault victim Justin Barker and his family were seen by ten witnesses (myself included) sharing a convivial meal with several of the students who had testified against Mychal Bell. This suggests that a number of “memory-enhancing” conversations about the incident have taken place between early December and late June. Jessica Hooter likely “remembered” that the unidentified attacker was Mykal Bell because this quickly became the orthodox story in the social circle she move in.

Ms. Martin’s list

* At trial, special education teacher Kristy Martin listed off the names of the boys who surrounded Justin Barker as if they were clear in her memory. Although she was forced to admit that she never saw a single student touch Justin Barker, Martin’s ability to name names seemed very convincing. Martin is the only witness thus far who has provided a list of attackers longer than three names.

* In a written statement, given immediately after the incident, Coach Wayne Spence states that he was taking names of rowdy students in the gym during the lunch hour. “I had a list that Ms. Martin obtained from me,” he wrote. This suggests that Kristy Martin specifically asked Spence for the list of names the day of the fight. This explains why she is the only witness to remember more than two or three members of the Jena 6. Most eye witnesses can’t identify a single assailants name. Most of the students who gave eyewitness statements after the December 4 altercation at the school make references to “a bunch of black kids”.

The witness no one called

* Coach Benjy Lewis gave two statements immediately after the school incident in which he clearly states that Justin Barker was facing him when Malcolm Shaw (not Mychal Bell) struck Barker from behind. “I saw Malcolm Shaw hit Justin Barker with his right fist to the right side of Justin’s head, right around the temple,” Lewis wrote. “Justin went down face first, knocked out . . .” Most witnesses agree that a single punch knocked Barker out cold. The only adult who witnessed the punch says Mychal Bell didn’t throw it.

* In a signed statement given immediately after the altercation at the school, student Jesse Beard stated that moments after the assault Coach Manning asked him where Malcolm Shaw was.

* It isn’t hard to see why the prosecution didn’t call Lewis to the stand (his testimony would have devastated the state’s case); but how do we explain why defense attorney Blane Williams didn’t call the coach to testify?

* Several people (myself included) noticed Mychal Bell repeatedly handing his attorney pieces of eyewitness testimony during the trial. This suggests that Williams entered the courtroom utterly unprepared for trial.
The green jacket theory

* Two female students testified that the person who knocked Justin Barker cold was wearing a green jacket. Mychal Bell’s statement, given immediately after the incident, suggests that he was initially cleared of responsibility because he was wearing a black jacket. At trial, the “green jacket” witnesses were convinced that Mychal Bell was not the attacker-they knew Mychal and the guy in the green jacket was someone else.

* The “green jacket” identification means that we have at least three mutually contradictory eyewitness accounts of who struck Justin Barker: Mychal Bell, Malcolm Shaw, or an unidentified student in a green jacket.

* Both “green jacket” witnesses insist that Justin Barker was knocked cold, not by a punch to the temple, but by having his head slammed into a concrete bench. Coach Benjy Lewis says that Justin Barker was knocked cold from a punch from behind. Witnesses who name Mychal Bell as the attacker describe a face-to-face confrontation followed by a blow to the head that knocked Justin Barker out. Defense attorney Blane Williams never reflected on the evidence long enough to identify these obvious contradictions. If Lewis is right; Bell is innocent

* The fact that Justin Barker cannot remember who hit him argues in favor of Coach Lewis’s blow-from-behind account. It must also be remembered that Lewis was the only adult who directly witnessed the assault. He was also the only non-partisan eye witness. If Lewis is telling the truth, the witnesses who identify Mychal Bell as the initial attacker are either confused or, like Jessica Hooter, they are victims of a false sense of concreteness produced by the continual retelling the story in the company of partisan friends.

* Most of the prisoners recently exonerated on the basis of unassailable DNA evidence were wrongfully convicted by confident eyewitnesses. Memory doesn’t work like a photograph; recollections change dramatically with time. We often see what we want to see.

* All this contradictory evidence makes it impossible to identifyJustin Barker’s assailant with any confidence.

* All those identifying Mychal Bell were highly partisan observers clearly identified with one side of a longstanding and unresolved feud between the “country” white students who hung the nooses in a tree at the high school and the black male athletes who were particularly outraged by this hate crime (see more on this below).

* On balance, the most persuasive testimony by far comes from Coach Lewis-and neither the prosecution nor the defense called Lewis to testify at Mychal Bell’s trial.

A chaotic scene

* In signed statements, several black and white eyewitnesses referred to students running to and from the scene of the assault. Justin Barker was clearly struck on the face and then intentionally kicked while he lay on the ground. However, it is impossible to determine which of Justin Barker’s bruises and abrasions were the result of intentional assault and which may have been the unintentional result of a panic-induced stampede. All witnesses agree that the scene was utterly chaotic with students moving wildly in every direction. Defense attorney Blane Williams never raised this obvious question.

* Several of the Jena 6 defendants freely admit that they were close to the altercation. This isn’t surprising when we realize that the shout of “fight” at a high school always brings students running to the scene.
“With a stroke of my pen”

* In early September, the three white students responsible for hanging nooses in a tree in the school courtyard were punished with a few days of in-school suspension. The noose incident was dismissed as a childish prank. The following day, black students staged a spontaneous protest rally under the tree where the nooses had been discovered. Several black male athletes took the lead in this protest-the same students who were eventually accused of attacking Justin Barker.

* The decision to treat the noose incident as a childish prank sparked a brief firestorm of media attention in which Jena school officials were frequently accused of racism.

* In early September, District Attorney Reed Walters addressed an emergency school assembly called in response to the spontaneous student protest. With a dozen fully uniformed police officers in the auditorium, Walters warned protest organizers that with a stroke of his pen he could take their lives away. Walters has admitted under oath that he made this remark. His words were not aimed at the entire student body, nor at black students in general-he was speaking to the student athletes we now call the Jena 6. After the demonstration under the tree, Robert Bailey, Carwin Jones, Mychal Bell, Theodore Shaw, Jesse Beard and Bryant Ray Purvis became notorious.

A descending spiral of violence

* Evidence suggests that some teachers and school administrators were empowered by Mr. Walters’ “stroke of my pen” remark. Defendants report that in the wake of the school assembly, several teachers became increasingly strict and adversarial in relation to the boys responsible for associating Jena High School with Jim Crow racism. It appears that some students responded to this change in attitude by withholding respect and acting out in ways that encouraged an even more authoritarian teacher response. Discipline referrals for the Jena 6 skyrocketed during the fall semester.

* In the period between Mr. Walter’s “stroke of my pen” threat in September and the assault on Justin Barker in early December, a series of physical altercations played out between the Jena 6 and the circle of boys who supported the hanging of the nooses. The white students had attended all-white schools in the countryside prior to coming to the integrated high school campus. They felt reassured by the segregated school courtyard and were intimidated by the suggestion that black students could sit wherever they wanted. Hence the nooses.

* The laughably light discipline handed down for this “childish prank” was perceived, correctly, as a triumph for students wishing to preserve a segregated school square.

A fire, a fight, and a firearm

* In signed statements, several white and black students mentioned a series of verbal altercations during the lunch hour preceding the attack on Justin Barker. The trash-talking was directly related to a fight at the Fair Barn three days earlier. On that occasion, Robert Bailey and a few of his friends were invited to an all-white student party by some of their white friends. When Robert entered the building he was punched in the face by a 22 year-old white male. In seconds, Robert was assaulted with beer bottles, punches and kicks in a virtual mirror image of the altercation at the high school three days later. The only differences were that the identify of the instigator in the Fair Barn incident was undisputed and that Robert remained conscious after the initial blow and was thus able to minimize the impact of the attack.

* The following morning, Robert Bailey and two of the friends who had come to his aid during the Fair Barn assault were leaving a local convenience store when they encountered one of the country white males who had jumped Robert the night before.
Fearing retaliation, the boy retreated to his truck and pulled out a pump-action, pistol-grip shotgun that looks like something the Terminator might have fancied. When Robert and his friends wrestled the weapon away from their would-be assailant they were charged with assault and theft. Once again, Jena’s New Jim Crow regime was reinforced.

* It is not unusual for residents of rural LaSalle Parish to drive around with firearms in their trucks. On May 10, 2007, Justin Barker was arrested for bringing a rifle to school in his vehicle. A thorough search probably would have turned up several more illegal firearms in the school parking lot.

* The violent assault at the Fair Barn, the convenience store incident, and the assault at the school followed in the wake of a traumatic school fire in late Novermber. Everyone associated with the school was in a state of shock akin to post traumatic stress syndrome. Concerned by the wave of violence, several teachers asked administrators not to reopen the school the Monday morning of the assault.

Running his mouth

* Student statements suggest that the student who attacked Justin Barker was responding to taunts that Robert Bailey “had his butt kicked” at the Fair Barn. In the course of this verbal jousting, several students report that Justin Barker “got up in Mychal’s face” and gave Mychal the finger. Tony Knapp, one of three boys who admitted to hanging nooses earlier in the school year, was also involved in this lunch hour altercation. At trial, District Attorney Reed Walters created the misleading impression that Barker was attacked by black thugs looking for a random white victim. He knew better.

* Several eyewitnesses recall that the initial punch was preceded by the shouted words, “This will teach you to run your mother f***ing mouth.” This statement, repeated by too many witnesses to be seriously doubted, makes no sense apart from the trash talking described in student statements.
The sins of the fathers

* This background information demonstrates that the black male students who attacked Justin Barker were bound to a steadily escalating chain of violence and counter-violence.

* This spiral of action and reaction was initiated by the September decision of school administrators to treat the noose incident as a childish prank. When Reed Walters threatened the Jena 6 with life imprisonment if they didn’t relinquish their constitutional right to denounce injustice, the boys were left with no legitimate avenue of protest. In the end, immature white and black males were left to their own devices. The consequences were as predictable as they were tragic.

* The ultimate responsibility for the violence at Jena High School lies at the feet of public officials who refused to acknowledge a hate crime for what it was. The sins of the fathers are now being visited upon the children.

Defense Attorney says Bell's case should be in a juvenile system. Bell, the first of the "Jena Six" to face trial in the adult justice system, was 16 when arrested and charged with attempted murder in connection with a December incident at Jena High School. Bob Noel, one of the team of defense attorneys from Monroe who took on Bell's case pro-bono, said a juvenile can't go through the adult justice system unless he or she is charged with one of a few crimes such as murder, aggravated kidnapping, rape and attempted murder. Bell was convicted of aggravated second-degree battery, not one of the specific charges. But Pete Adams, executive director of the Louisiana District Attorneys Association, said the court that starts with jurisdiction retains it. This is an excerpt from the code that governs which court would handle a juvenile's case: "The court exercising criminal jurisdiction shall retain jurisdiction over the child's case, even though he pleads guilty to or is convicted of a lesser included offense. A plea to or conviction of a lesser included offense shall not revest jurisdiction in the court exercising juvenile jurisdiction over such a child." But Noel pointed out that the adult system would retain jurisdiction only if the jury came back with the lesser charge or if Bell pleaded to that charge. That wasn't the case for Bell, he said. If the arrest of judgment — the motion that would void the conviction in adult court and throw it into the juvenile system — is denied, Noel said the attorneys also have filed a motion for a new trial citing improper representation by Bell's previous attorney. The other attorneys defending Bell along with Noel are lead attorney Louis Scott, Lee Perkins, Peggy Sullivan and Carol Powell-Lexing. All of the attorneys are members of the 4th Judicial District Indigent Defenders Board. Bell is still being held in lieu of $90,000 bond. A bond reduction hearing is set for Aug. 24. His sentencing is set for Sept. 20th. http://truthfighterstv.com

[Lrgcrdrvr]

Hello,
I am totally frustrated with the action(s) of these pig skin people who are hell bent on continuing with demeaning people of color. In my own opinion, we should fight fire with fire! There is a time for everything in life and at this momentblack people need to stop being afraid of pig skin people, and start busting caps all over the place, once and for all to let it be known, that we won't stand for it any more. I wish it were possible to kill some of them as they did during the former years in America, they would think twice and maybe more about being cowards, who run in bunches. I'll bet that not one pig-skin person would've ever been able to lynch or rape or demean in any form...that's why I call them cowards! Blacks need to stop killing one another and turn the tide against the same people who enslaved their fore-fathers. If I would go to war against another country because of what a PIG-SKIN so-called leader said was necessary, then I should be willing to die fighting against the enemy who lives right here in the same country. Don't die because territory on a block that really isn't yours...but be willing to die because another person would go so far as to disrespect your man-hood!

Stop being afraid Black Man...Right Now.....Let's get together!

[CARMEL_CANCER CHI]

I Can Understand Your Anger But To Want To Kill Is Not The Way.please Remeber God Has The Final Word. These People Are Cowards Of The Worst Kind. But Don't Let Them Stop Your Blessing Cause You Are Accountable For Your Action's Also. And Prayer Is The Best We Can Do For Them. Pray That They Get Everything That Is Coming To Them.

[hmharris]

There's a time for praying and now is the time for standing up for what is right and just for all our people. Did praying get us the rights we have today? Most of us participate in a religion that was the strong hold of slave owners. Did prayer bring us out of slavery? Why was the Civil War fought?

[darren]

Originally Posted by hmharris

There's a time for praying and now is the time for standing up for what is right and just for all our people. Did praying get us the rights we have today? Most of us participate in a religion that was the strong hold of slave owners. Did prayer bring us out of slavery? Why was the Civil War fought?

the war was noy fought over slavery

[greyorwhat]

After reading this I am sick to my stomach. It's sad that Law Officials are so stuck in the past that they can't se the light. Life is to short for them not to have grew up and changed with the times. i wonder what they will say when judgement day come and they have to stand before GOD and he turns out to be black? I guess they will start singing a new song, I hope HE listens better than they are acting. My GOD people grow and wake up. They need to be treated the very same way they are treating these young people. I was before, but after reading the facts I am very sad that my people are still being treated as if we do not count, when that little town was probably build with our blood sweat and tears. No I am MAD-AS-@#&* and we all know what that stands for. Don't get me wrong I understand this is not about race, it truly is about WHAT'S RIGHT AND WHAT'S WRONG.

[greyorwhat]

I agree with you, but GOD helps those that help themselves, and now it the time to help ourselve. Not by killing there are better ways and they do not have to be violent.

[smiley37]

I have been in a heated discussion with my friend their point is- if this travesity of justice occured back in Sept. 2006 where were all the black nationally syndicated hosts then. It is a year since these children have been in trouble within that time the National Assoc of Black Journalists had a big party in Vegas yet not one of them brought this story to the forefront. Why did the locals not contact any of the syndicated hosts and why did the local black radio stations not stand up? these questions I was asked made me stop and think and truthfully ask the same thing WHY did a year go by before this explosion of publicity? I beleive we should help these kids, parents and everyone down there but again WHY are we as black people just getting the news from our own black press why must we always be reactionary. Is it that some black media outlets felt these black people were not worthy of their news space.

[bucsfan02]

people get convicted unjustly all the time. I think why alot of people are jumping on this ship because the town is 85 percent white. I got 2 and a half years in prison for a white man making racial slures and attacked me. Im not african american but i am a minority. Nobody came to my rescue because my town is not all white. Just had to man up.This happen 22 years ago and i see we have not gotten any farther. I think some charges need to be brought on the white boys who beat up the one kid at the party,but i ask myself if all this racial tention is going on at this school why would those black kids go to an all white party. If the tree was known to be a tree that the white kids sat under every day why would the one black kid sit under it.He evidentally knew the white boys sat under the tree or he wouldnt of asked the principle. In the world we live in today racism does not excuse violence. They shouldve had al sharpton down there before this all happen which makes me wonder if he really concerned about african americans or concerned about Al Sharpton see David Banner quote