Jena 6: Jury Duty

Here is a brief summary of the Jena Six situation –

please read the Jena Six archives here.

At the high school in the 85% white town of Jena, Louisiana, a group of black students found it necessary to ask permission to sit under a tree where white students normally sat. The principal told them they were free to sit where they liked, and when they went to the tree the next day, they found three nooses hanging from the branches. As they say at Fark, hilarity ensued. Disciplinary problems and tension escalated until the school’s academic wing was burned in November, and climaxed in early December with the following events:
- a black student, Robert Bailey, was beaten by a group of whites at a weekend public gathering at the Fair Barn. One person was charged with misdemeanor battery; no one else was charged.
- three black students, including Robert Bailey were threatened by a Jena high school graduate with a shotgun at a convenience store the following day. They disarmed him and ran away, to be later charged with assault and theft for taking the gun with them.
- back at school on Monday, after a “trash talking session” in the gym where the Robert Bailey was taunted for having his “ass whipped” a white student was beaten by black students. Six black students – the “Jena Six” were charged for the beating within the hour. The beaten student was taken by ambulance to the ER, treated and released within two and a half hours. He was well enough to attend the ring ceremony that night, and says that he took pain pills for his injuries for about a week and a half.

The Jena 6 were originally charged with 2nd degree attempted murder. Two of the students could not pay the excessively high bail and have been in jail since December. The charges were dropped to 2nd degree aggravated assault – still a felony – for the first student who was tried, Mychal Bell. Bell was convicted and faces prison, possibly until he is 40 years old; sentencing will be on July 31, 2007.

Much has been made of the fact that the 6 person jury which convicted Mychal Bell was white. In a town that is 85% white, it is practically a statistical certainty that it would be. 150 jurors were called, 50 showed up. All 50 were white. The real injustice was not the color of the jurors’ skin. The entire case is so steeped in injustice that blaming one aspect of it really isn’t accurate. There were many points along the way that justice could have been done. For example, the noose-hangers could have been dealt with appropriately in the beginning, and at the infamous school assembly where DA Reed Walters threatened the black students, they could instead have had a presentation about lynching in the south and why this topic isn’t amusing or a “prank” any more than pointing a loaded gun at someone is a prank. The school board could have given the community’s black parents adequate time to educate others about how unfunny this little “prank” really was. Robert Bailey’s attackers could all – instead of just one – have been arrested and charged with simple battery. The man with the shotgun could have been charged, instead of the students who disarmed him. A teacher could have intervened in the “trash talking session” and broken it up it escalated. The Jena 6 could have been expelled from school and charged with simple battery instead of the ridiculous charges they did receive. Mychal Bell’s lawyer could have actually bothered to defend him, and stopped friends and family of the prosecution witnesses and DA from getting on the jury. There were many points along the way where this could have been changed.

Regarding the jury, few people like jury duty. One Massachusetts man declared himself a racist to avoid it. But the self-centered, “what I want is the most important thing” attitude that so many people have about jury duty weakens the system that is supposed to protect us all. Our federal republic requires participation in order to work. Of the 100 who didn’t report, I wonder what their excuses were. Too busy at work? Couldn’t find someone else to take the kids to day camp? Just didn’t feel like it? What reasons could possibly supercede the fact that a young man’s future was at stake? Would they have walked past a burning building to do whatever their excuse included without taking the time to call 911 and try to alert the people in the building? Jury duty is an equally urgent task, and we neglect it at our peril.

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