June 28 2007 4:09p-cstBlack Teen Guilty. 6 Jurors, 6 affirmatives, 1 of the Jena "6" convicted?
A, re-New Jena Prison?
No Wonder! Senator Noble Ellington
amended HB294 byRep. Billy Chandler,
changing the name of the Central
Louisiana Juvenile Detention Authority
to the Central Louisiana Youth Authority
with LaSalle Parish being its location.
Ellington amended the bill from the Senate floor,
before final passage.Bill
The session closes, tomorrow at
6pm June 28th.
"It's up to the people of Louisiana now,
to make a difference" hlr
Brown-National Action Network & Conner-NAACP
What is the real reason behind the JENA Six rush to judgment? A state wide message is being sent.
The Louisiana Legislature in this session has renamed
the "Central Louisiana Juvenile Detention Authority"
and located it in LaSalle Parish.
Trial Continued to June 25th
"JENA SIX" Trial Begins Monday!-['Nifonged'?]
"in the face of heartfelt pleas officials refused to discuss the noose."[eyewitness account]
Jena Rally@LaSalle Courthouse
Racial Demons Rear HeadsChicago Tribune, Sunday May 20, 2007 Article
Opening of Span Of Gulf Coast Hwy US90The Jena Six as they have been dubbed are scheduled for trial Monday May 21, 2007 in Lasalle Parish.The ACLU, through a New York representative is spending time in Jena. The National Action Network is represented by the New Orleans Branch Chairman. A Louisiana State Conference of the NAACP vice president has been involved in the case. An adjacent parish local NAACP chapter president is engaged with the families of the defendants. All of this ongoing while the FBI is investigating the 1964 bombing of Frank Morris' business in Ferriday, La.
In Jackson, Mississippi a federal trial begins on May 29th in the 1964 Klan murders of two teens whose bodies were dumped in the Mississippi River near Tallulah, La. And just recently, the most infamously inciteous killing in 1965 of Jimmie Lee Jackson in Marion, Alabama by, now retired Alabama trooper James Bonard Fowler, who infamously recounted the incident in a 2005 newspaper interview is scheduled to go to trial in the ensuing months. The which killing sparked the Selma to Montgomery March, culminating in Bloody Sunday for all the world to see, then, in 1965. All of this in the midst of the swirl of national, state and even international american realignment, should now have us all to know, that most definitely The Winds of Change are blowing again.
Now the lynchman's noose is Wrongful Convictions:the new tyranny of fear. The question remains, what shall be the method to expose this segregationist monstrosity.
I Would have you to know, however, that the roots of American "segregationist turpitude" rest in New Orleans, Louisiana at 400 Royal Street. It was there, Homer Plessy's role was galvanized in the organized challenge of segregationist rulership by a group including Louis A. Martinet. To this day, those roots of the vestiges of segregationist control are maintained in the United States of America from 400 Royal Street in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Louisiana Supreme Court could put a stop to some of the wrongful convictions if it wanted to. The so-called Jena Six case could be halted before it begins to cost the state untold amounts as these indigent defendants begin what could now become the long drudgery of a protracted ACLU or NAACP-LDF or even a United Nations Human Rights inquiry.
Updated 23May2007 0607hrs
<--- Atty Shumate & T. Shaw
King Downing talking to parents --->'Jena Six' trial continued to next month
By Abbey Brown
abrown@thetowntalk.com
(318) 487-6387
JENA -- Tears streamed down Melissa Bell's face Monday as the judge ruled in favor of LaSalle Parish District Attorney J. Reed Walters' motion to continue her son's trial more than a month.
Across the courtroom, wearing a black-and-white striped jumpsuit and handcuffed, Mychal Bell's head fell backward in frustration when he heard the ruling.
Bell is one of the six Jena High School students who have become known as the "Jena Six." He and Theodore Shaw were scheduled for jury trial Monday on charges of attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder in connection with a Dec. 4 fight at the school that sent fellow student Justin Barker to LaSalle General Hospital.
Bell and Shaw are the only two students charged in the fight who remain in jail, each in lieu of $90,000 bond.
"(Walters) said they needed more time to get the witnesses together," Melissa Bell said outside the LaSalle Parish courtroom. "If you ain't found the witnesses yet or got together what you need, what's another month going to do. What will they do next month if he still doesn't have everything -- continue it again?"
She said her biggest frustration is that her son has been sitting in jail "day in and day out" ready to go to trial while the state has continued to postpone things.
Walters told 28th Judicial District Court Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr. that many of his witnesses had made plans months ago to be out of state this week and that several other witnesses were Jena High teachers or students with finals this week.
Walters also said in court that Dr. Gbolanan Sokoya, one of Barker's emergency room physicians, can't be located.
Both Bell and Shaw's attorneys objected to the continuance.
"We are ready for trial," Bell's attorney, Blane Williams, said in court.
He said they would be willing to work around the school's finals schedule and suggested having the trial in the evening hours to avoid a conflict.
Mauffray said that suggestion and Williams' flexibility were "admirable" but said that if "the shoe were on the other foot, you'd be jumping up and down" requesting a continuance to have time to present material witnesses.
The trial was continued until June 25, with the caveat that Walters be able to produce all of his witnesses by that date, Mauffray said.
According to court documents, Walters has subpoenaed at least 34 witnesses for the trial, including Barker, a number of other students, Jena High teachers and staff and medical personnel from LaSalle General.
Robert Bailey Jr. also was scheduled for jury trial Monday, but a continuance requested last week by his attorney had been granted by the judge.
Trial dates haven't been set for Carwin Jones and Bryant Purvis. If found guilty on all charges, all of the boys could face 25 to 100 years in prison. The sixth boy's case is being handled by juvenile court, and records weren't available.
The Jena Six have garnered national attention by both media and civil rights groups.
An article in Sunday's Chicago Tribune with the headline "Racial demons rear heads" documented issues the school and city have been facing since September -- including the hanging of nooses on school grounds that some parents of the "Jena Six" said started the whole ordeal.
During a "peace rally" earlier this month, Marcus Jones, Bell's father, said "it's all about those nooses" and said the charges are racially motivated.
The three boys accused of hanging the nooses -- all white -- were given a three-day suspension and faced no criminal charges, Jones said. Fights leading up to the December fight at the school weren't handled in this manner -- with attempted murder charges, he said.
"But this fight, with black boys against a white boy, there are attempted murder charges," Jones said. "There are racial tensions, and it started with those nooses."
King Downing, national coordinator for the American Civil Liberties Union's Campaign Against Racial Profiling, said the organization is committed to supporting the "Jena Six" throughout the trial process.
"We want justice for these young men and their families," he said. "We want to clear the air and know for certain if these boys were overcharged and see if there are any disparities in justice in LaSalle Parish."
Downing said he has been encouraging the families to stay positive and strong.
"There is a smell in the air," he said. "We have not completely identified it, but we are trying to make sure it isn't the smell of injustice. ... I think the world's attention on Jena is growing. And I hope anything out of order gets in order quickly."
After the continuance was granted, Theodore McCoy, Shaw's father, said he was disappointed.
"We were hoping to get this under way," he said. "I know (Theodore) is more frustrated than me. I can't imagine what he's going through. The charges are outrageous. We are just ready to put this behind us."
The truth is the Distict Attorney needs to be recused from this case for the following statement.hlr At a school assembly soon after, La Salle Parish District Attorney (DA) Reed Walters, appearing with local police officers, warned Black students against further unrest. “I can make your lives disappear with a stroke of my pen,” he threatened. Threat in article in the Indypendent
Jena is a town of 2,900, with about 350 black residents. Three white students were suspended from Jena High in September after hangman's nooses were found dangling from a tree on campus.
"Information included below was gathered through a review of local print media, as well as discussions with staff members at a local radio station that is covering the story and the parents of three of the youth involved. "
"On the morning of Friday, September 1, 2006, the students at Jena High School arrived at school to find two hangmans nooses dangling from a tree on campus. The nooses were hung in response to an exchange that had taken place the day before during a school-wide assembly. According to news reports, a Black student stood up during the assembly and asked the school principal, Mr. Scott Windham, whether he and the other Black students could get permission to sit beneath a particular tree during lunch, along with the white students who sat there on a daily basis.
Mr. Windham informed the students that they could sit wherever they wanted during lunch. Apparently, this did not sit well with some of the white students. After investigating the incident, three white students were identified as having been involved in hanging the nooses from the tree following the assembly. The students were then suspended for three days and sent to an alternative school pending their expulsion hearings. The principal, Mr. Windham, subsequently recommended that the three white students be expelled from the school. However, his recommendation was overridden by LaSalle Parish Schools Superintendent Roy Breithaupt."
No Charges were filed in the noose incident.Black Teen Guilty.
