On July 31, 17-year-old Mychal Bell will be sentenced for aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated second-degree battery. Bell is facing a maximum sentence of 22 years. He is one of the "Jena Six," a group of black Louisiana Jena High School students who face conspiracy charges for fighting with Justin Barker.
In September 2006, black students sat under a "whites only" tree. The tree didn't have a sign, but students understood who was and who was not allowed to sit beneath it. When the black students arrived at school the following day, they saw nooses hanging from the tree.
Racial tension escalated in Jena. At a barn party, a group of white students jumped Robert Bailey - an eventual member of the Jena Six - and only one of the attackers was charged with battery. The following day, Bailey and two friends were walking to a grocery store and had a shotgun pulled on them. The man who drew the shotgun had no charges brought against him; however, Bailey was charged with theft for the shotgun that he wrestled away from the man. On Dec. 4, 2006, the fight broke out at Jena High School, and Justin Baker was hospitalized for various injuries. After a tomography scan revealed that there were no abnormalities in his brain, he was released with minor injuries.
There are no justifications for the actions of the Jena Six. The law, however, should be colorblind, and the sentencing should be appropriate and guided by precedent. This was not the case with the white people who committed crimes against blacks in Jena or in the prosecution of the Jena Six.
Mychal Bell did not receive a fair trial. In an 85-percent white town, Bell had an all-white jury, only one of whom was male - far from a jury of his peers. Furthermore, several members of the jury were friends of the prosecution's witnesses. One of the witnesses for the prosecution was a student who had hung a noose on the tree. Bell's court-appointed defense attorney was not prepared for the trial. After advising Bell to take a plea bargain, which Bell refused on the basis of his innocence, the attorney did not challenge the jury selection. The attorney did not call a single defense witness, yet placed many of Bell's friends, family and fellow students on a witness list.
One of the witnesses, a coach at the high school, signed a statement saying that he saw that Bell was not part of the fight. The judged placed a gag-order on all the witnesses, so they could not be present in the courtroom for the trial and could not talk to the press or anyone outside the courtroom about the trial.
Since the defense witnesses could not talk about the trial and were not questioned by the defense attorney, Mychal Bell's case could not be made in court or to the public. Yet, the most outrageous claim brought against Bell was that the defense attorney argued that Bell's tennis shoes were a "dangerous weapon." Bell could not have been charged with aggravated second-degree battery without possession of a dangerous weapon.
Hanging nooses from a tree is a powerful statement of white power in a town already heavily segregated. Why the whites at the barn party were not charged with conspiracy to murder or the man who drew a shotgun on Bailey was not charged with attempted murder is difficult to explain without racism, considering the charges brought against the Jena Six.
Also difficult to explain is how Barker, who brought a loaded hunting rifle onto campus in May, was released on a $5,000 bond, whereas Bell's bond was set at $90,000. It will be tragic if Bell spends any amount of time in jail for whatever part he played in the fight with Justin Barker. Bell deserves a fair trial.
Pace is an anthropology and history junior.
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