But first, just to let you know, I'm working on Mychael Bell is free information. If he's not officially free right now, which it seems that he is; it's more than evident that he will be soon as the local High School in Carroll Louisiana is talking about him joining the football team. He was a star athlete at Jena High before all this; getting recruitment letters from major football programs across the country.
Convictions Overturned for 2 of the Jersey 4
Before the Jena 6 there were the Jersey 4. Last summer I brought you their story .
Here is the short of it, you can read the long version in the link above.
As Imani Henry wrote "Venice Brown (19), Terrain Dandridge (20), Patreese Johnson (20) and Renata Hill (24)—received sentences ranging from three-and-a-half to 11 years in prison. None of them had previous criminal records. Two of them are parents of small children." Their were charged in response to defending themselves against an attack by a man who's advacnce they had turned down on a Grenich village street.
Two of them have now had their convictions overturned.
Angry Brow Butch has the story of two of the victims release:
An appeals court on Thursday overturned the convictions of two women accused in the beating and stabbing of a man who they said made unwanted sexual advances to them in Greenwich Village two years ago.
One of the women, Terrain Dandridge, whom a jury found guilty of second-degree gang assault, had her conviction reversed and indictment dismissed; as a result she can no longer be tried on those charges. A four-judge panel of the Appellate Division in Manhattan ruled that there was not enough evidence to support a guilty verdict for Ms. Dandridge. She had been sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
The second woman, Renata Hill, who was found guilty of second-degree gang assault and third-degree assault, had her gang assault conviction vacated, but she can be retried on the charge. The court ruled that the judge’s instructions to the jury on the charge were erroneous and that therefore her conviction could not be upheld.
She was sentenced to eight years in prison, but if the Manhattan district attorney decides against further prosecution, she is likely to be released because the maximum penalty for the third-degree assault is a year and she has already been in prison longer than that.
I'm glad the one can't be tried again. I've suggested to my blogging comrades that we need to go hard and provide political support and cover to help bring pressure on the DA not to retry the other; and for something to be done for the two still locked up.
Mychael Bell is out of jail right now instead of spending years on lock down because of what we did. Shaquanda Cotton http://freeshaquandacotton.blogspot.com/ is home because of our political cover. Determined advocacy works.
I say let's get to it!
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