Jena 6 Update: 1 Case Overturned
One of the five students set to stand trial in the Jena 6 case can now breathe easy.
One down, five to go.
A Louisiana appeals court yesterday overturned the aggravated-battery conviction of a black high school student who was found guilty of attacking a white classmate after a racial incident that raised tensions in their small town.
The state’s 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal ruled that Mychal Bell, 17, should not have been tried as an adult by LaSalle Parish District Attorney J. Reed Walters, and that the trial judge erred in allowing Bell to be tried as an adult on charges of aggravated second-degree battery. Under Louisiana law, teenagers can be tried as adults for certain violent crimes but not battery, the court said.
Ol’ boy Sharpton was live on the scene demanding free chips and cupcakes as always:
“This is a child. He’s been locked up in a prison for a year, and a court’s saying that he never should have been tried as an adult,” Sharpton said. “He should be compensated for that.” (Source: Wash Po)
No rest till Jena 6.
