Jena Six Teen Back in Jail
Mychal Bell, one of the six teens at the center of the Jena Six civil rights controversy, is back in jail.
Yesterday Judge J.P. Mauffrey Jr. ordered Bell to serve 18 months in jail, saying his participation in the beating of a white classmate violated probation for a previous juvenile court conviction, the Associated Press reports. The court hearing was supposed to have been routine, Bell’s attorney said.
More than 20,000 demonstrators protested Bell’s battery conviction to highlight differences in the way blacks and whites are treated by the criminal justice system. The beating took place after three nooses were hung from a tree, known as a gathering place for white students, after a black student sat there. An appeals court later overturned the conviction, saying Bell should not have been tried as an adult.
The Rev. Al Sharpton protested the judge’s latest decision. “We feel this was a cruel and unusual punishment and is a revenge by this judge for the Jena Six movement,” he told AP.
