My Perspective: Finally, The End to Jena 6 But Not to Future Cases Like It

On Friday, June 26, 2009, nearly two years after more than 320,000 plus people stood up to protect them from Jim Crow justice, the Jena 6--Jesse Ray Beard, Carwin Jones, Robert Bailey, Theo Shaw, Bryant Purvis and Mychal Bell--are all now free to move ahead with their lives. “We should all be proud,” ColorofChange.org said. The five remaining Jena 6 cases were brought to a conclusion on Friday when Jesse Ray, Carwin, Robert, Theo, and Bryant pleaded "no contest" to misdemeanor simple battery charges. They will spend no time in jail, serve seven days of probation, and pay relatively minor fines and court fees.

Colorofchange.org said, “It's an incredible outcome given that the young men were originally charged with attempted murder in small-town Louisiana and had neither the funds nor the connections to get high-quality representation or attention for their cases.” Luckily for the Jena 6, hundreds of thousands of people got involved, and the power of people of all walks of life participation changed the game for the Jena 6. An amazing team of lawyers worked tirelessly to achieve Friday's outcome. Colorofchange.org sent out an email proclaiming that their staff helped recruit the lawyers that represented the Jena 6, and with financial contributions--over $275,000--provided the bulk of the funds for the work that was done to help the Jena 6. Jim Boren, the coordinating attorney, said this about ColorOfChange members' contribution: "None of this would have happened without you."

But it wasn't just lawyers and money. Over 300,000 of people wrote to Governor Blanco and District Attorney Reed Walters. On September 20th, 2007, more than 10,000 plus people went to Jena. Members who couldn't make it to Jena held more than 150 rallies and vigils across the country, and made more than 6,000 plus phone calls to elected officials in Louisiana. And a few weeks later, ColorOfChange members sent almost 4,000 complaints demanding an inquiry into the DA's actions. The actions offline and online helped put Jena on the map and resulted in critical coverage in every mainstream news outlet. People started a movement that made it impossible for Louisiana officials to support the status quo. And on Friday, many people offered congratulations to these young men and their families, and organizations like ColorofChange.org thanked the entire ColorOfChange.org community.

The attorneys who these cases but chose to stay out of the limelight deserve a huge thank you according to ColorofChange.org and are considered unsung heroes of this story right along with others. ColorofChange.org went on to say in its online statement to supporters that while this is a great moment, it's important to remember that if it were not for the extreme nature of this case, most of us wouldn't have known about it or gotten involved. The reality is that there are countless Jena 6's: young people--often Black and male--who are overcharged or unduly criminalized, and whose plight is unknown to most of the outside world.

Thus, Colorofchange.org is right with their last statement but the reality is that after many marched on the town of Jena, I wrote a piece last Fall/Winter asking whatever happened to Jena 6 and what is the results. Not many in the news media covered the story after about a week or two after the marches in Jena, Louisiana that resulted in no change in the case because Mychal Bell stayed locked up for nearly a month after the marches. However hundreds of thousands of people marched on Jena, Louisiana after the two was closed down instead of marching on the state capitol of Louisiana and the Governor’s mansion where Governor Blanco could be found and state officials of Louisiana could be seen and asked what they are going to do to prevent future Jena 6’s from happening. Nonetheless organizations like the ColorofChange.org should be commended but for nearly a year this organization didn’t write about Jena 6 to give updates about the case and never sent out mass emails to inform us the supporters of the progress of the cases until finally on Friday the case came to an end that an editor of the Daily Kos says was fair for the Jena.

While doing my research for this piece, I found in the Daily Kos Editorial Notes the following statement:
Five of the Jena Six (remember them?) have received their sentences...fines, probation, no jail time. Frankly, that strikes me as a fair sentence for these guys. It's certainly better than the jail time they would have had if they were convicted of the original charge of second degree attempted murder for what was essentially a schoolyard fight.

While the sentence might strike some like the Daily Kos and ColorofChange.org as fair, I beg to differ when the reality is that the young men should have gotten off free from fines, probation and jail time. While not having to do jail time is good but the young men were unfairly treated by the DA and the justice system which is supposed to be equal to all. It is clear that the United States Justice Department should have intervened and thrown the entire case out because of how unfair and justly wrong the facts were in the case. In fact there should have been a complete investigation into the town of Jena as well as into the high school who failed to deal with the issue properly in the first place. However nearly two years after the fact, many people are proud to announce this as a victory but it isn’t a victory when still the Jena 6 received minor punishment while others who started this got off freely for pulling guns on these young men and their friends as well as for hanging nooses that is clearly a sign of racism.

The Jena Six case, once prompted a massive civil rights demonstration and drew international attention, saw the final chapter played out quietly. But the truth of the matter is it was as if all the marching, protesting, letter writing and other noise that was made was all for not when the case was settled in the quietest hours. Nonetheless, quietness was probably necessary for this case to be settled but the results don’t mean that it was the right the results based off what the facts were in the case. However, since the last five of the Jena Six didn’t get any jail time, it seems that we as a society should happy for the young men because the results could have been worse than fines and probation.

Still the five neatly dressed young men answered "Yes Sir," on Friday as state District Judge Tom Yeager asked them if they accepted the terms of a deal that included pleading no contest to misdemeanor simple battery. The charges against the five — Carwin Jones, Jesse Ray Beard, Robert Bailey Jr., Bryant Purvis and Theo Shaw — had previously been reduced from attempted murder to aggravated second-degree battery after they were accused of beating and kicking schoolmate Justin Barker. Civil rights leaders railed against the harshness of the original charge, saying it was because the defendants were black and Barker was white.

The plea deal gave the defendants seven days probation, a $500 fine and court costs. Mychal Bell, the sixth defendant, had previously pleaded guilty to a second-degree battery charge and received an 18-month sentence. "I just thank God that it's all over," said John Jenkins, Jones' father. "It's been a long, painful journey for everyone on both sides of this thing." Barker and his family and friends sat without expression through the hearing. Barker's attorney said he has graduated and is now working in the oil fields. The family did not comment. As part of the deal, one of the attorneys read a statement from the defendants in which they said they knew of nothing Barker had done to provoke the attack.

"To be clear, not one of us heard Justin use any slur or say anything that justified Mychal Bell attacking Justin nor did any of us see Justin do anything that would cause Mychal to react," the statement said. The statement also expressed sympathy for Barker and his family, and acknowledged the past two-and-a-half years had "caused Justin and his parents’ tremendous pain and suffering, much of which has gone unrecognized." None of the defendants spoke to reporters. By pleading no contest, the five did not admit guilt but acknowledge prosecutors had enough evidence for a conviction. LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters said in a statement that he could have won convictions but wanted to end the matter for Barker. All but Shaw were assessed $500 in court costs. The judge did not tack that punishment on to Shaw's case because he stayed in jail for nearly seven months, unable to raise bail, following his initial arrest.

Each paid the fine and court costs immediately. The payment of restitution to Barker was also part of the deal, but the amount was not released. A lawsuit filed by Barker against the group was also settled Friday, though the terms were confidential. The only member of the group to serve jail time was Bell, who pleaded guilty in December 2007 to second-degree battery and was sentenced to 18 months in jail. Four of Friday's defendants have graduated from high school, and all are attending or getting ready to attend college. Purvis has completed his first year and Bell is planning to attend college this fall. Beard is a senior in high school in Connecticut. "They can move along with their lives," said Bailey's attorney, James Boren. "And because there are no felonies they can look forward to full lives ahead."

The severity of the original charges brought widespread criticism and eventually led more than 20,000 people to converge in September 2007 on the tiny town of Jena for a major civil rights march. Some $275,000 was raised to hire a large defense team for the six, said Beard's attorney, David Utter. Racial tensions at Jena High School reportedly grew in the months before the attack. Several months prior to the attack, nooses were hung in a tree on the campus, sparking outrage in the black community. Residents said there were fights, but nothing too serious until December 2006 when Barker was attacked. "Everybody pointed a finger at Jena during this, but this happens to African-American males across the country," Utter said. "These young men were lucky that people cared and donated money so they could afford good attorneys. That made the difference."

So finally, the end to Jena 6 but not to future cases like it because as Utter stated, young black man across the country face similar feats like this and don’t get the type of public recognition and attention that the Jena case got. However despite the outcome of the Jena Six, there are many questions that linger such as to why in the world did the other five Jena 6 defendants go along with Mychal Bell and nearly two & half years later, the real facts emerge as to why Barker was attacked. While the reality is that the town of Jena particularly the high school played a heavy role that resulted in Barker’s brutal beat down, it doesn’t excuse the fact that the Jena 6 were wrong for their actions. Now at the same time, it doesn’t excuse our nation as a whole particularly our justice system for failing us once again by holding these 6 young men accountable for simply beating a young man but the young man lives but when white young men beat and killed a Hispanic boy, the cases resulted in no punishment for those young men. Therefore when I say that the Jena 6 should have got no fines and probation, I say it because of what took place in a previous case similar to the Jena case except without all the buildup of racial tension to the case.

If our justice system doesn’t show equality like it should than where can we as a people find justice for all. African American young men can’t be held to a different standard than their white counterparts and that is the fatal flaw in America’s democracy and justice system. Minorities are locked up three times more than their white counterparts and the fact that much attention hasn’t been given to this issue until now, is the civil rights debate just like education. Education and American’s Justice System in terms of convictions and imprisonment are the 21st century civil rights issues that we as all Americans must address if we are to be a better society than our predecessors. While the Jena Six should be a wakeup call to all Americans that there is more to things than black and white & marches and protests should only occur after all the facts have emerged. Still it doesn’t excuse the fact that DA in the case overreacted in the beginning states of the case and that the justice system looked to railroad another group of young African American males for bad deeds that they did. Therefore our politicians, our judges, the U.S. Justice Department, all the states in the U.S. and us as a people need to work together to eradicate the disparities in the law and the injustices done to minorities when it comes to the law.

Justice is color blind and should be economically blind as well which is why future cases like the Jena Six should not be allowed to occur in this country. We as a people must look to rewrite the wrongs but we can’t celebrate in victories in things like Jena 6 when these young men should have never been fined or place on probation when their own white counterparts aren’t held to the same standard. Organizations like ColorofChange.org did play a major role in this case as well as the Michael Baisden Show and others but for nearly a year and a half, none of them discussed the case or what the progress was. For nearly a year and a half none of them informed those who marched and protested of what was the next stage and even after Louisiana got a new Governor, there were no writing campaigns to Gov. Bobby Jindal and there were no letter writing campaigns to the Presidential nominees after they were none as well.

Thus now with the smoke and mirrors gone, it is clear that organizations like the ColorofChange.org played a role but they could have done more to keep the momentum going. In fact we all could have done more to keep the momentum going but this is not the end to future cases like it and that’s why we should learn from how the Jena case was handled by the media, the civil rights movement and talk shows. We can’t simply march and protest than go home and allow for nearly a year for the case to go by until it is resolved in the quietness of the day. We have to continue to identify and fight for individuals railroaded by the justice system and the democratic system. But most of all we must continue to work to create a systemic change in criminal justice in America because that is the only way our society can rewrite future occurrences like the Jena 6. It’s not simply about letter writing, protesting, marching and gathering but it is about keeping the momentum and the movement going beyond the days of a march, of a protest or a letter writing campaign. We have to keep the momentum on creating equality in the criminal justice system alive and well and that starts today.

Therefore I challenge all of us, organizations like the NAACP, the Urban League, ColorofChange.org and talk radio shows like Tom Joyner, Michael Baisden and others to continue to advocate for social justice issues for all people not just African Americans or minorities but for all Americans but most of continue to update your supporters weekly on cases and information even when the national media doesn’t cover it any more. We have to do better in making sure we as a people stay knowledgeable and informed of the issues but most of all we have to keep the momentum going on equality in our criminal justice system no matter how much or little news coverage is given. We must be the news coverage for it, not just now but right now and forever.

Sources:
“The Jena 6 are free -- how YOU made it possible”--ColorofChange.org
www.colorofchange.org

"Plea Bargain Wraps Up 'Jena 6' Case," 9-26-09
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/26/national/main5116800.shtml

“Jena 6 case wrapped up with plea bargain”—Associated Press
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iRhUbYLvMhsIydqlCUXsqJGlzsIAD992HUM02