Plea For Michael Bell Is Not the End of Fight For Equal Justice

For Immediate Release
Mychael Bell Plea Not the End of Fight For Justice
Contact: D. Yobachi Boswell 615-478-5204 * LionRunner777@yahoo.com

On yesterday, Monday December 3, District Attorney Reed Walters offered a plea deal to Mychael Bell in the Jena 6 Case, dropping the conspiracy charge; leaving Mr. Bell an 18 months sentence on second degree battery. The sentence also includes time served, and is to run concurrent with his present parole violation incarceration.

While we are delight that an overzealous and malicious prosecution that brought charges which would have made Mychael Bell eligible for approximately 100 years of incarceration will now see the young man out of Juvenile corrections by next summer, to resume his young life; let it be understood that the Afrosphere Jena 6 Coalition remains steadfast in our position that this prosecution was unjust, we remain steadfast in fighting against injustice in this particular case for the other 5 young men, and we will continue to fight against unequal justice in the legal system across the country; which are primarily racially and socio-economically based.

Attorney, and noted “AfroSpear” Blogger Francis L. Holland, Esq states “AfroSpear bloggers and our audiences will continue to assert our role as forceful advocates of equal justice for Blacks in the American justice system…we will continue to insist that ALL ADULT AND JUVENILE CHARGES AGAINST ALL 6 DEFENDANTS be dropped and foreclosed for the future, and that de jure and de facto segregation be ended at Jena High School...we have to ask ourselves whether the final result in this criminal case is what it would have been if Mychal D. Bell were white. We know that it isn't. Black young people in Jena should not go to jail while white students commit the same acts with impunity."

There is a greater issue highlighted here of how the legal system overcharges people to force them into a corner to take a lesser deal, in order not to risk being convicted on higher trumped up charges, and to point the finger at others who may very well be innocent; in order to save themselves.

It highlights the criminalization of Black youth to get them in the system, because once there in the system of incarceration and parole they are virtually a ward of the state; and this provides needed bodies for the for-profit prison industrial complex to make money. They can’t profit unless they have a continued stream of bodies in the cells.

What’s most interesting here is if D.A. Reed Walters actually believed that Bell and others attempted to kill Justin Barker, how could he possibly settle for 18 months? He tried to lock Bell down for 100 years and then when that didn’t fly legally; 22 year.

In Reed Walters own Op-ed piece in the New York Times on September 26, when defending his actions as being from a purely legal standpoint, he states himself that “a district attorney cannot take people to trial for acts not covered in the statutes.”

If he doesn’t really believe, and further did not have the evidence to support the charge that six Black students attempted to commit murder, and that there was a conspiracy; how could he have ever rightfully charged the former, and how could he have ethically and legally tried Mychael Bell on the latter.

Those of us in the Afrosphere Jena 6 Coalition and others will continue to stand up against unequal justice. We will Fight, and we will Win! video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7253600219767288651


Afrosphere Jena 6 Coalition

D. Yobachi Boswell, Coordinator

BlackPerspective.net and TheJena6Blog.blogspot.com

In Jena 6 Case Mychael Bell Makes Plea Deal

I reported earlier today on The Jena 6 Blog that Bell was probably near a deal; now it seems official.

According to this CNN article the deal should have him out by june of ’09 – a far cry from the 100 plus years district attorney Reed Walters initially wanted, and even from the 22 years he wanted when he was forced by lack of a case to drop the conspiracy to commit murder; but still illegally prosecuted Bell as an adult.



Bell was convicted of felony aggravated battery by an all white jury containing members with alleged ties to the Judge and the DA, back in July. While waiting on sentencing, facing 22 years, the conviction was overturned by the 3rd circuit court of appeals because Bell was not eligible to be tried as an adult, but they ruled he could be retried as a juvenile.

After Judge Mauffrey, the same Judge who allowed Bell to be illegal tried in the first place, tried to deny Mychael Bell a release on bail for a week; he was then freed 13 days after the overturning of his conviction.

Then, in a surprise to all legal watchers of this case, Bell was put back in jail by yet the same judge for a parol voilation based on the same actions his conviction was overturned on. He was out for only 15 days on house arrest. He went to a routine hearing for his parol in relation to an earlier case than the Jena 6 incident, and Judge Mauffrey surprisingly revoked his parole and put him in jail for 18 months on October 11th.

I spoke with Alan Bean of Friends of Justice, this evening; the social advocacy organization for the falsely accused who pushed the Jena Six story into the public eye. He says from what he's heard from direct contact with people in the court room, he was in Lafeyette today, not in Jena as I had thought; that the CNN reporting that Bell would be out by June sounds about right. He's being told 6 - 8 months. I'll have more of my interview with Mr. Bean in the next day or two either here at The Jena 6 Blog or at BlackPerspective.net

Having recieved conflicting reporting, I'm not sure if it is a misdemeanor deal for the 6 to 8 months, or a felony deal that is adding 6 to 8 months to the 9 plus he's already served from the time he was arrested in December 2006; where he is getting credit for time already served.

Mychael Bell May Be Near Plea Deal

I got this from Friend's of Justice. I plan to talk with Friend's of Justice Director Alan Bean some time today. He's in Jena Louisiana for todays Court Proceedings.

Lawyer: ‘Jena Six’ Teen Near Plea Deal
By MARY FOSTER

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A black teenager whose prosecution in the beating of a white classmate led to one of the largest civil rights protests in years is close to a deal that would allow him to plead guilty to a misdemeanor and avoid a second trial, his attorney said Sunday.

Mychal Bell, 17, could enter the plea as early as Monday, said attorney Carol Powell Lexing. He has been charged with aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy.

“We were prepared to go forward with the trial, but you have to do what’s best for the client,” Lexing said.

LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters did not return a call Sunday evening requesting comment.

Bell, who is black, is scheduled to go to trial Thursday on the felony charges for his suspected role in an attack on Justin Barker, a white student at Jena High School in central Louisiana.

Barker spent several hours in the emergency room after the attack but was discharged and attended a school event the night after the attack, which occurred about a year ago.

Bell was originally charged as an adult with attempted murder. That charge was reduced before a jury convicted him in June of aggravated second-degree battery. In September, that verdict was thrown out by an appeals court that said Bell should be tried as a juvenile.

The charges against Bell and five other black students led to a civil-rights demonstration in Jena in September. Felony charges against the other students are pending.

Critics said prosecutors have treated blacks more harshly than whites in LaSalle Parish, pointing to an incident three months before the attack on Barker in which three white teens were accused of hanging nooses from a tree at the high school. The three were suspended from school but never criminally charged.

Walters has said there was no state crime to charge them with.

Jena 6 Video from the Salt N Pepa Show

This is a video of extra; most of the video is footage that didn't appear in the show.

The Jena Six March on the "Salt N Pepa Show" Tonight

I remember it being announced from the podium that they were there, but I never saw them at the march. I'm interested in seeing how it is portrayed and treated on this show.

Also another opportunity to relive the wonderful moment.

VH1's 'Salt-N-Pepa Show' tackles Jena 6
By Derrik J. Lang, AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK — Salt-N-Pepa are still pushing it. Cheryl "Salt" James was determined to march for racial equality in Jena, La., last September, whether or not cameras from her VH1 reality series, The Salt-N-Pepa Show, followed her.
"I just felt like as a mom, I wanted to be there," James told The Associated Press in a recent phone interview.

The Salt-N-Pepa Show documents the reunion of James and her former partner, Sandy "Pepa" Denton. James left the groundbreaking female rap group in 2002.

James, Denton, their families and reality TV crew journeyed for two days by tour bus to march alongside thousands of protesters and meet the families of the Jena Six, six black teens accused of beating a white high school student.

Their trip was to be featured in an episode of The Salt-N-Pepa Show airing Monday night (10 p.m. ET).

FIND MORE STORIES IN: James | VH1 | Salt-N-Pepa
James didn't think VH1, the cable network home of reality TV fare such as I Love New York 2 and America's Most Smartest Model, would be interested in capturing such an experience.

"I was surprised that they wanted to come and was very, very happy about it," she told the AP. "It's nice to entertain, but it's also nice to use your platform to bring awareness to different issues."

Upcoming episodes feature James and Denton working out their differences with life coach Iyanla Vanzant and performing at the House of Blues in Los Angeles. The series concludes Dec. 2.

James — who's "more open than ever" to recording a new album with Denton — said VH1 has ordered a second season of their show.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The Justice That Jena Demands

Free The Jena 6 Tree Graphic

In the News: The Justice that Jena Demands
Posted by: Xochitl Bervera , November 06, 2007

The injustice we witnessed in Jena, Louisiana, should wake us up to blatant racism throughout the criminal justice system --- and tell us it's time for radical change.


I want to tell you about some young men I know. These are young Black men who have encountered Louisiana’s criminal justice system who I know because their mothers have become proud members of Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC), the organization I have worked for over the last 7 years. These stories are about young men who have experienced incredible injustice, not unlike the Jena 6, only the national spotlight has never shined on them.

First, there is Emmanuelle Narcisse. He was a tall, slim, handsome young man who was killed by a guard at the Bridge City Correctional Center for Youth – a Louisiana juvenile prison – in 2003. Apparently, he was “fussing” in line, talking back to a guard. The guard punched him in the face, one blow, and Emmanuelle went down backwards, slamming his head on the concrete. He took his last breath there behind the barbed wire of that state run facility. The guard was suspended with pay during the investigation. No indictment was ever filed against him.

There is also Tobias Kingsley, sentenced when he was 15 to two years in juvenile prison for sneaking into a hotel swimming pool (his first offense). Tobias endured physical and sexual abuse inside the prison. He said that guards traded sex with kids for drugs and cigarettes, and sometimes set kids up to fight one another, making cash bets on the winner. His mama said he was never the same after he came home. She said the nightmares, the violence, the paranoia persisted years after the private lawyers helped him come home early. His battles with addiction and depression are not yet over.

And there is Shareef Cousin, who was tried as an adult and sent to death row in the state of Louisiana for a murder that he didn’t commit. Shareef spent from age 16 to age 26 behind bars, the majority of those years isolated in Angola’s Death Row, because an over zealous prosecutor didn’t care that the evidence didn’t really add up. After all, it was only a young Black man’s life on the line.

There are hundreds more. Thousands. Every day in the state of Louisiana (and in most states in this nation), injustices of epic proportions are taking place in our criminal and juvenile justice systems. We, those of us who live here, fight here, and organize here, know hundreds of families and young people – often our own - who’ve endured almost inconceivable levels of violence, abuse, neglect. And despite efforts to get someone, anyone to care and to act, these young people most often end up statistics in somebody’s dismal report, or an anecdote in an article just like this. Because people don’t care. Because these young people are not just poor, they are not just Black, they are criminals.

To read the rest go here

Michael Baisden Vs Black Bloggers

…A fight that shouldn’t even have to be.

I finally had to publicly address the Baisden situation today: Michael Baisden and The Family Kicked it at Atlanta Fundraiser As Controversy Swirls

A fellow blogger, I assume Black Blogger, chided the AfroSpear group with taunts such as “Dear fellow diplomatic and tactful Black bloggers”; and stated that “Y'all can be all "We Are the World" if you want to, but it is what it is. Old media is terrified of Black bloggers.”

She finished her tirade with “Ridiculous. Was there EVER any debate as to whether or not Black bloggers should publicly confront this idiot Baisden? Toughen Up people!”

I don’t repost her whole statement, because while the accusations contained there in regarding Mr. Baisden are probably more likely true than not, it is unproductive public rhetoric, and it’s beside the point of how we conduct ourselves in response.

As I noted in the BlackPerspective.net piece:

“I was always troubled that he hadn’t given any specifics on these points, but I kept quiet on it as to not unfairly disparage the brother; and as not to cause bickering and suspicion that would hurt the movement. I only wish Mr. Baisden shared my sense of prudence.”

See, the movement, not my personal ego is the issue for me here.

We had our own little behind the scenes drama amongst the organizers in Nashville right after the Jena trip; but most people have no clue any schism even existed; and we’ve been able to move forward, for the most part, working together with the collective effort that allowed us to organize 10 FREE busses to go to Jena in the first place; because we didn’t put each other on blast publicly to where our egos wouldn’t allow us to come back together. And, we didn’t destroy one another’s reputation to the public where we all may have ended up looking bad, and destroying all grassroots leadership credibility in the city.

That’s why my answer to the blogger who taunts the Afrosphere for not operating as bombastically as she, was as follows:

“The issue isn’t about taking vengeance as bloggers. It’s about protecting the cause from infighting that will discourage the masses who are hard to encourage to fight in the first place; and now finally having been turned on may subsequently be turned off by this.

Put your blogger pride aside for a second. If your pride as a blogger is the most important thing to you here then you’re just as wrong and as dangerous as Baisden and what he did.

And yes, responsible, intelligent people in a coalition such as the AfroSpear talk to each other instead of just going off half-cocked like a bunch of wild banshees.

We don't need internet gangsterism or teenage emotional retorting; we need thoughtful and calculating strategy to forward the movement.”