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Originally Posted by QTAllStarGurl
These are the events that led up to Justin Barker being beat up.its all in the video..i previously posted the link
Sept 06- Nooses hung on tree
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According to early reports, black students typically sat on bleachers near the auditorium, while white students sat under a large tree, referred to as the "white tree" or "prep tree", in the center of the school courtyard. However, according to some teachers and administrators at the school, the tree in question wasn't a "white tree", and students of all races sat under it at one time or another.
A school assembly was held on August 31, 2006. According to media reports, a black male freshman student asked the principal whether he could sit under the "white tree". According to U.S. Attorney Donald Washington, the principal stated that the question was posed in a "jocular fashion". The principal told the students they could "sit wherever they wanted."
The following morning, nooses were discovered hanging from the tree. Reports differ whether there were three — believed by some to be code for the Ku Klux Klan — or two. A
black teacher described seeing both white and black students "playing with [the nooses], pulling on them, jump-swinging from them, and putting their heads through them." According to The Jena Times, the nooses were removed by 7:15 a.m. after school officials were informed.
U.S. Attorney Donald Washington stated, the FBI agents who investigated the incident and the federal officials who examined it found that the hanging of the nooses "had all the markings of a hate crime." However, it could not be prosecuted as such because it failed to meet federal standards required for the teens to be certified as adults. District Attorney Walters stated that Washington had found
no federal statute under which the teens could be prosecuted, just as he had found no applicable state statute."
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| Nov 30, 2006- Fire set in school |
While arson was determined to be the cause, the arsonists have never been identified.
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| The next day white students beat up a black student at a party(Nov 31) |
Five black youths, including 16-year-old Robert Bailey, Jr., attempted to enter the party at about 11 p.m. According to U.S. Attorney Washington, they were told by a woman that
no one was allowed inside without an invitation. The five youths persisted, stating that some friends were already in attendance at the party. A white man, who
was not a student, then jumped in front of the woman and a fight ensued. After the fight broke up, the woman told both the white man and five black youths to leave the party. Once outside, the black students were involved in another fight with a group of white men, who were not students.
Police were called to investigate. Justin Sloan, a white male, was charged with simple battery for his role in the fight and was put on probation.
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Dec 2- White man pulls a gun on 3 black students in a gas station but the students take the gun from him before shots were fired the white guy wasn't changed but the 3 black students were arrested for theft of a firearm. |
n Saturday, December 2, 2006, another incident involving Bailey occurred at a local convenience store. A white student who had attended the Fair Barn party encountered Bailey and several friends. Reports from the involved parties are conflicting, but indicate that an argument occurred, the white student produced a shotgun from his pickup truck, and that the gun was ultimately taken from him by Bailey and his friends. Local police reported that the accounts of the white student and black students contradicted each other and formed a report based on testimony taken from eyewitnesses. The white student claimed that Bailey and his friends shouted and ran after him, that he ran to get his gun, and that the students wrestled it away from him. According to the black students, as they left the convenience store, they were confronted by the white student with a shotgun. They stated they wrestled the gun away from him and fled the scene. After hearing from an uninvolved witness of unspecified race, the police charged Bailey and two others with three counts: theft of a firearm, second-degree robbery, and disturbing the peace. The white student who produced the weapon was not charged.
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| Dec 4, 2006- Jena 6 beat up Justin after making racist comments to the black kid who was beaten up on Nov 31 |
On December 4, 2006, 17-year-old Justin Barker, a white Jena High School student, was assaulted at school. He was struck on the back of the head and knocked down by a black student. According to some witnesses, a group of black students then repeatedly kicked him.
Some individuals have stated that Barker had mocked Robert Bailey, Jr., who had allegedly been beaten up by a white man the previous Friday.
Barker denies that.
Schools superintendent Ray Bleithaupt stated that the attack was no ordinary schoolyard fight.
"It was a premeditated ambush and attack by six students against one," Bleithaupt said. "The victim attacked was beaten and kicked into a state of bloody unconsciousness."
According to relatives of the accused, the six defendants have all been expelled from school. [[[[This is not uncommon, many schools are 'zero tolerance' for fighting.]]]]
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Then the 16 yr old Mychal Bell was sentenced to 22 years in prison (He remained in jail for 10 months until he was released on Thursday)
So i think some of you should know the facts before you say this shouldn't have been a racial issue |
On June 26, 2007, the first day of trial for defendant Mychal Bell, Walters agreed to reduce the charges for Bell to aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated second-degree battery. A charge of aggravated battery requires the use of a "deadly weapon". Walters therefore argued that the tennis shoes that Bell was wearing and used to kick Barker with were deadly weapons, an argument with which the jury ultimately agreed. Witness accounts conflicted over his role, if any, in the attack. Public defender Blane Williams, himself a black man, had urged Bell to accept a plea bargain, did not challenge the composition of the jury pool, and rested the defense case without calling any witnesses.
There was a six-member all-white jury, although blacks were included in the jury selection process. The 150-person jury call included black citizens, who make up ten percent of the parish's population, but none of the 50 potential jurors who showed up were black. One of the seated jurors was a high school friend of the victim's father. The jury found Bell guilty, and he faced the possibility of up to 22 years in prison. The judge scheduled sentencing for September 20, 2007.
Following the trial, Bell's new defense attorneys, Louis Scott and Carol Powell-Lexing, requested a new trial on the grounds that Bell should not have been tried as an adult and that the trial should have been held in another parish. A request to lower Mychal Bell's $90,000 bond was denied on August 24, 2007, due to his
juvenile record. Bell had been put on probation for a battery that occurred December 25, 2005, and he was subsequently convicted of another battery charge and two charges of criminal damage to property while still on probation. Sources told ESPN that one of the battery charges was for punching a 17-year-old girl in the face, although details of the conviction might be protected under the Louisiana Children's Code.
On September 4, 2007, a judge dismissed the conspiracy charge on the grounds that he should have been tried as a juvenile, but let the battery conviction stand. However, on September 14, 2007, Louisiana's Third Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Bell's battery conviction, also ruling that he shouldn't have been tried as an adult. Louis Scott, Bell's attorney, has indicated that the ruling dismissed the charges for now, but that the prosecutor could appeal or refile the charges.
Following an order by the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal, a hearing was held on September 21, 2007, to determine whether to set bond for Bell. The judge in the hearing denied the request for Bell to be freed while his appeal is being reviewed. A motion by Bell's attorneys to have Judge J.P. Mauffrey recused was also denied.
On September 26, 2007, Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco announced that the prosecution would not appeal the appellate ruling, but would try Bell as a juvenile. An announcement by District Attorney Walters was to follow on the 27th. The district attorney in fact did so announce on the 27th, and Bell was then released on $45,000 bond.
Bell was bonded out once $5,400 was paid to Cut-Rate Bail Bonding by Dr. Stephen Ayers of Lake Charles, Louisiana.. Bell is subject to electronic monitoring and is under the supervision of a probation officer.
None of these kids were angels.
