Thursday, September 27, 2007

Mychal Bell's Bail Set at $45, 000

Hat tip: Skeptical Brotha

Mychal Bell’s bail set at $45,000
September 27th, 2007

Hat Tip: (CNN) — Bail was being posted Thursday for Mychal Bell, a black teenager accused of beating a white classmate, after a district attorney’s announcement that he would not appeal a higher court’s decision moving Bell’s case to juvenile court, according to the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Mychal Bell, 17, is accused with five others of beating Justin Barker in a school fight.

Bell’s bail was set at $45,000, Sharpton said. The paperwork was being worked out, he said, and the bail bondsman was at the courthouse.

Earlier Thursday, Bell was moved from jail to a juvenile facility, according to his attorney, Lewis Scott.

LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters said his decision not to appeal was based on what he believed is best for the victim in the case.

“While I believe that a review would have merit … I believe it is in the best interest of the victim and his family not to delay this matter any further and move it to its conclusion,” Walters told reporters. Watch the district attorney say he won’t challenge the ruling. »

He said a march by 15,000 people last week in the small town of 3,000 residents led by civil rights leaders Sharpton and Martin Luther King III did not influence his decision.

Demonstrators were protesting how authorities handled the cases of Bell and five other teens accused of beating fellow student Justin Barker.

Many said they are angry that the students, dubbed the “Jena 6,” are being treated more harshly than three white students who hung nooses from an oak tree on high school property.

The white students were suspended from school but did not face criminal charges. The protesters say they should have been charged with a hate crime.

Bell, now 17, was the only one of the Jena 6 behind bars. His bond previously was set at $90,000.

A district judge earlier this month tossed out Bell’s conviction for conspiracy to commit second-degree battery, saying the matter should have been handled in juvenile court. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal in Lake Charles, Louisiana, did the same with Bell’s battery conviction in mid-September.

Prosecutors originally charged all six black students accused of being involved in beating Barker with second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy. Walters reduced charges against at least four of them — Bell, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones and Theo Shaw — to battery and conspiracy.

Bryant Purvis awaits arraignment. Charges against Jesse Ray Beard, who was 14 at the time of the alleged crime, are unavailable because he’s a juvenile.

Wednesday, Gov. Kathleen Blanco announced that Louisiana State Police officers will protect the families of the Jena 6 and investigate any threats they have received. A white supremacist Web site posted the names and addresses of the six black teens after last week’s march, calling on followers to “let them know justice is coming.”

Thursday, the FBI said it has been made aware of allegations of threats.

“Threats are taken seriously, and as these investigations are ongoing we cannot comment further,” said Sheila Thorne of the FBI’s New Orleans, Louisiana, office.

The December 4 attack on Barker came after months of racial tension, including at least two instances of fighting in the town, sparked originally when three white teens hung nooses from an oak tree on the town’s high school grounds.

Walters has said there was no direct link between the hanging of the nooses and the schoolyard attack, and defended the prosecutions ahead of last Thursday’s peaceful march. Blanco defended the prosecutor Wednesday, saying, “He has a solid record and is highly respected among his peers.”

Walters also addressed the stress and notoriety the town has been subjected to, saying the only way he and other residents “have been able to endure the trauma that has been thrust upon us is through the prayers of the Christian people who have sent them up in this community.”

He also suggested that some kind of “disaster” was averted when thousands of marchers came to Jena last week.

“I firmly believe and am confident of the fact that had it not been for the direct intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ last Thursday, a disaster would have happened,” Walters said.

“The Lord Jesus Christ put his influence on those people and they responded accordingly,” he said, without explaining exactly what he meant.

Soon after the district attorney spoke, a local reverend took issue with his comments.

Obviously, we are serving two different gods here,” the Rev. Donald Sidley said. “My Bible says that we should do — we should be loving, love your neighbor as yourself.

“For him to try and separate the community like he is and then using Christ Jesus to influence the people that Jesus is working on their side, well, that’s — that’s absurd. … God is god of the human race,” said Sidley, of the New Evergreen Church.



Well, maybe some sort of justice is finally going to take place. He should have been out of jail the nanosecond his conviction was vacated.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This smacks of the OJ defense... if you are black you can do anything and get away with it.

When ignorant, bigot kids hung nooses in a tree, they may have offended some people, but they didn't physically hurt or try to kill anyone. Should they have been punished... absolutely!! When six black students (who are physically the statue of any large adult) ganged up on and brutally attacked one student ... even continued to kick the victim in the head after he was unconscious, there was definitely reason to charge and prosecute the attackers.

Enough of the poor little mistreated black student crap. Mychal Bell has a history of violence, he has even attacked a female student. He is the lowest form of an abuser... any male who would attack a female is less than human as far as I am concerned. He is just another OJ Simpson in the making. What he is being taught right now is that because he is black, he can do whatever he wants and there will be no consequences. When he abuses and kills his wife someday .... he will have his defense already planned for him.

rikyrah said...

Anonymous,

why don't you post with a name?

Now, onto the substance of your non-post.

This smacks of the OJ defense... if you are black you can do anything and get away with it.

Um, no. I don't think so. Nobody I know said that was the OJ defense. He was found NOT GUILTY, based upon the system that you all set up.

First of all, NOOSES+TREE=THREAT.

You wouldn't mumble the words that they ' may have offended some people' if it had been Jews with a Swastika. Would never have been mumbled by you.

Stop acting as if those boys beat that White boy because the sky was blue that day and they didn't have anything better to do.

Nooses in Trees = Nobody punished.
One of the Jena Six beaten by a group of White boys = Nobody punished
They Pull a SHOTGUN on The Jena Six, they disarm this guy, take the gun to the police AND THE POLICE CHARGE THE JENA SIX.
The DA Threatening ONLY THE BLACK STUDENT POPULATION- nothing done.

But, beat a White Boy - and it's NOW ATTEMPTED MURDER?

GTFOH.

I don't think so.

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