There is obviously more than meets the eye here.  A lot of historical
problems.  But how can you let vigilante justice reign?  Frankly, under
the same circumstances as stated in the NYTimes article, here in
Starkville the Black kid would have been charged as an adult with an
aggravated felony.  It probably would have been bargained to a
misdemeanor.  The sad part is that with all of this publicity,
bargaining may not occur, to the detriment of the Black kid.  Something
similar happened in a case I handled (against my advise) and it only
served to harden the prosecution.  Our prosecutors are to racist but
they are human and don't take kindly to anyone laying waste to their
integrity.

Pearson

>>> "Fisher, B D" <[log in to unmask]> 9/27/2007 8:30 AM >>>
Re Jena:  There was an extremely balanced editorial in yesterday's
Financial Times (London) newspaper re Jena.  Perhaps viewing things from
"outside the box" has its advantages.
                         Bruce Fisher (from outside the U.S.A.)

________________________________

De: Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk de la part de Bill
Shaw
Date: mer. 26/09/2007 19:06
À: [log in to unmask] 
Objet : The Jena Six


The local cadre of jocks at my YMCA, knowing me to be a Louisiana
native, continue to harass, so I posted this on the bulletin board for
the few of that number who could read.  This account parallels the one I
got this weekend from my cousin, the district judge (and former district
attorney) in Caldwell Parish, adjacent to LaSalle.  

===================
New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/>  

Op-Ed Contributor



Justice in Jena 

By REED WALTERS
Published: September 26, 2007


THE case of the so-called Jena Six has fired the imaginations of
thousands, notably young African-Americans who, according to many of
their comments, believe they will be in the vanguard of a new civil
rights movement. Whether America needs a new civil rights movement I
leave to social activists, politicians and the people who must give life
to such a cause. 

I am a small-town lawyer and prosecutor. For 16 years, it has been my
job as the district attorney to review each criminal case brought to me
by the police department or the sheriff, match the facts to any
applicable laws and seek justice for those who have been harmed. The
work is often rewarding, but not always.

I do not question the sincerity or motivation of the 10,000 or more
protesters who descended on Jena last week, after riding hundreds of
miles on buses. But long before reaching our town of 3,000 people, they
had decided that a miscarriage of justice was taking place here. Their
anger at me was summed up by a woman who said, "If you can figure out
how to make a schoolyard fight into an attempted murder charge, I'm sure
you can figure out how to make stringing nooses into a hate crime." 

That could be a compelling statement to someone trying to motivate
listeners on a radio show, but as I am a lawyer obligated to enforce the
laws of my state, it does not work for me. 

I cannot overemphasize how abhorrent and stupid I find the placing of
the nooses on the schoolyard tree in late August 2006. If those who
committed that act considered it a prank, their sense of humor is
seriously distorted. It was mean-spirited and deserves the condemnation
of all decent people. 

But it broke no law. I searched the Louisiana criminal code for a crime
that I could prosecute. There is none.

Similarly, the United States attorney for the Western District of
Louisiana, who is African-American, found no federal law against what
was done.

A district attorney cannot take people to trial for acts not covered in
the statutes. Imagine the trampling of individual rights that would
occur if prosecutors were allowed to pursue every person whose behavior
they disapproved of. 

The "hate crime" the protesters wish me to prosecute does not exist as
a stand-alone offense in Louis
iana law. It's not that our Legislature
has turned a blind eye to crimes motivated by race or other personal
characteristics, but it has addressed the problem in a way that does not
cover what happened in Jena. The hate crime statute is used to enhance
the sentences of defendants found guilty of specific crimes, like murder
or rape, who chose their victims based on race, religion, sexual
orientation or other factors.

Last week, a reporter asked me whether, if I had it to do over, I would
do anything differently. I didn't think of it at the time, but the
answer is yes. I would have done a better job of explaining that the
offenses of Dec. 4, 2006, did not stem from a "schoolyard fight" as it
has been commonly described in the news media and by critics. 

Conjure the image of schoolboys fighting: they exchange words, clench
fists, throw punches, wrestle in the dirt until classmates or teachers
pull them apart. Of course that would not be aggravated second-degree
battery, which is what the attackers are now charged with. (Five of the
defendants were originally charged with attempted second-degree murder.)
But that's not what happened at Jena High School.

The victim in this crime, who has been all but forgotten amid the focus
on the defendants, was a young man named Justin Barker, who was not
involved in the nooses incident three months earlier. According to all
the credible evidence I am aware of, after lunch, he walked to his next
class. As he passed through the gymnasium door to the outside, he was
blindsided and knocked unconscious by a vicious blow to the head thrown
by Mychal Bell. While lying on the ground unaware of what was happening
to him, he was brutally kicked by at least six people. 

Imagine you were walking down a city street, and someone leapt from
behind a tree and hit you so hard that you fell to the sidewalk
unconscious. Would you later describe that as a fight? 

Only the intervention of an uninvolved student protected Mr. Barker
from severe injury or death. There was serious bodily harm inflicted
with a dangerous weapon - the definition of aggravated second-degree
battery. Mr. Bell's conviction on that charge as an adult has been
overturned, but I considered adult status appropriate because of his
role as the instigator of the attack, the seriousness of the charge and
his prior criminal record.

I can understand the emotions generated by the juxtaposition of the
noose incident with the attack on Mr. Barker and the outcomes for the
perpetrators of each. In the final analysis, though, I am bound to
enforce the laws of Louisiana as they exist today, not as they might in
someone's vision of a perfect world. 

That is what I have done. And that is what I must continue to do. 

Reed Walters is the district attorney of LaSalle Parish.