Jena 6: Justice in the Land of Two Americas

Miscarriage of justice in the Land of Two Americas

Karita Hummer in News
7/05/2007 at 5:22 PM EST

A story of injustice in a Land of Two Americas!

A very ugly story has just unfolded in Jena, Louisiana, an obvious miscarriage of justice in the land of Two Americas, where two kinds of justice prevail.

Seems like a black student sitting under a Tree where white students usually hang out was just unacceptable to some white students. Disgruntled white students reacted hatefully by hanging three nooses from the tree, but all they got for this despicable hateful expression was a slap on the wrist. Another white student beat up a black student at an off campus party and got minimal repercussions.

After a time of being taunted and being called names, and having the effigies defended by white students, black students retaliated by fighting the white students. A victims in the crime, was knocked unconscious, though writer Bill Quigley, a noted Civil Rights attorney in an article, stated that he had recovered sufficiently to be able to attend a social event later that day. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070307B.shtml Initially, the black youths were charged with attempted murder, but the charge was dropped for Mychal Bell, and reduced . to . But the measure of justice, or more aptly stated, injustice, he received far exceeded his crime.

Bill Quigley states, "On the morning of the trial, the DA reduced the charges from second-degree attempted murder to second-degree aggravated battery and conspiracy. Aggravated battery in Louisiana law demands the attack be with a dangerous weapon. The dangerous weapon? The prosecutor was allowed to argue to the jury that the tennis shoes worn by Bell could be considered a dangerous weapon used by "the gang of black boys" who beat the white victim." http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070307B.shtml

In his trial, Mychal Bell, who had been placed on a charge of second-degree aggravated battery and conspiracy and placed under a bond of $90,000, was swiftly found guilty, despite contradictory witness reports. In this trial that just occurred in this case, of Mychal, a 16 yr. old boy, tried as an adult, he was tried by an all white jury and under a white judge. Now, this 16 yr. old boy, previously an athlete in his school, stands to go to prison for stands to get up to 22 years in prison.

What year is this, 2007, you say? Sounds like little has changed in Jena, and reminds us once again of the two Americas, of which John Edwards speaks so eloquently.

The article on this subject by Bill Quigley is the source for my entry here, and is must reading, but put some wraps, because it is a chilling story!! http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070307B.shtml Bill Quigley is described this way by Truthout: "Bill is a human-rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University in New Orleans." http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070307B.shtml For the Link, go to: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070307B.shtml Bill Quigley wrote a stark heading to this article, <"All white jury sitting before white judge agrees with white prosecutor and all white witnesses and convicts black youth in racially charged high school criminal case.">

For anyone concerned about civil rights, and justice under such rights, it is imperative that we let our Congress know about the travesty that has just occurred in Jena.

Karita Hummer San Jose, CA

p.s. The Truthout story is not a single story, there have been many others, some of which I have cited below in the discussion that followed this piece I entered. Let me cite one of those other stories here: <"Jurors convicted Mychal Bell, 17, of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy charges despite conflicting testimony from witnesses about whether Bell was among a group of black students who allegedly jumped the victim as he emerged from the gymnasium at the local high school on Dec. 4, knocking him unconscious."> http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-jena_wittjun26,1,3186370.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed