The internet is a great vessel to get important information out..I wanted to provide you a hot off the press scoop, in hope that you will share with others:
I attended the "Strange Fruit: The Jena 6 Story" in St. Louis and it was a mind opening experience. I wanted to share the updates of it with you in hopes that you will share with others. It seems that the mainstream media is trying to change the truth, but I wanted to provide some facts.
1. The Judge in the case is the only judge for the town. He processes all cases, be it Juvenile or Adult. He is the Judge that presides over all justice of the peace ceremonies, probate, lawsuits, etc.
2. The DA also is the lawyer that defends the school system or the school board. He was the one who recommended that all boys were expelled not only from Jena school system, but the whole state of Louisiana along with them being put on trial in the criminal justice system along with the Juvenile system. This seems like a conflict of interest.
3. All of the boys have served a minimum of 4 months in jail before they got bail monies. In reality this should have been treated as a school fight within the school system and handle in that manner with the punishment being given.
4.When the Appeal Court overturned the sentencing of Mychal Bell as an adult and he went to Juvenile Court after serving 10 months in adult prison, the Judge only gave him
1 day for the 10 months serve and arrested him for violating his probation. And the Judge took the $45,000 in bail monies knowing that he was only going to give him a few days out of jail or charged him for parole violation.
5. The judge also is trying to make the parents of Mychal Bell pay $600 a month while he is Incarcerated along with the court cost. This is being appealed.
6. Marcus Jones, Mychal Bell father lost his job a few days prior to them going to court. This is to allow them not to have the money to pay the order of the court.
7. They are using the illegal release of Mychal Bell Juvenile records to try portrait him a risk to society. Many of the records have been misrepresented. For instance one of the incidents was wrapping a car with toilet paper and the other one was getting into a fight with a basketball player. In reality these incidents are dealt with on a school level and without the intervention of the court system.
8. The State of Louisiana has the highest per capital incarceration of African American in the whole world. Seventy-five percent of their prison population is African American.
9. Mychal Bell in his 11th grade year had received over 10 scholarships for football. Some of them were UCLA and LSU. He has received many honors for his talent as a football player. In January, Bell was selected the 1st African American combined player. He seemed that he was on his road to being selected as a Professional football player.
10. The following was stated that: LaSalle parish District Attorney Reed Walters convinced an all-white jury of people who were more than twice the age of Mychal, that the 17-year-old’s tennis shoes were his weapon of choice. Oh, I almost forgot, during his trial no one gave testimony that they even saw Mychal kick the so-called victim, Justin Barker. Many students say Barker taunted Bell all morning the day of the fight. Since then Justin Barker has been expelled for a year, according to Louisiana Law ,for bringing a gun on the Jena High School campus.
The lawyer for Mychal Bell was a public defender and he didn't call anyone in Mychal Bell defense.
10. Tyler Perry has donated full scholarships to any school of their choice to all Jena 6 students.
11. Mychal Bell hearing is scheduled for December and Bryant Ray Purvis hearing is in November.
Overall, there was much said at the program, but some that should be mention is that on Friday, November 2, 2007 will be national "Blackout Day". Asking everyone in support of Jena 6 to not buy anything on that day and to wear black in support of the cause. They want you to continue to write and call your congressmen and senators to ask they cause a Justice Department investigation of the way Blacks are imprison in Louisiana and the Jena 6 case.
They wil be having a caravan from Jena to Washington, DC to meet in DC on November 16, 2007 at the Justice Department asking for them to intervene in the Jena 6 case along with injustice anywhere.
The Jena 6 group is asking people that want to give donations for Jena 6 to donate it the Jena 6 Defense fund or NAACP or purchase shirts only from their approved vendor which is donating 30-40% to the defense fund. The website is located at:
http://www.jenasixtshirts.com/. You can send donations to along with letters:
The Jena 6 Defense Committee,
PO Box 2798,
Jena, LA 71342
e-mail:jena6defense@gmail.com
After talking to Marcus Jones, personally I am asking students that are majoring in law to assist them to challenge the various laws that are in place to stop the Judge from using his system. Jena 6 also deserves the dream team. Although you might be learning how to be a lawyer, this will be a good way to allow you to apply the law.
St. Louis and Wash U African and African American Studies students, George Warren School of Social Work and the Alpha Omega chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc were very gracious and gave them the royal treatment. Many volunteered themselves to help in this cause of injustice.
Posted By: C H
Sunday, October 28th 2007 at 3:00PM
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