He’s being kicked back to juvenile court, unless DA Reed Walters ups the charges:

The 3rd Circuit of Court of Appeal has vacated Mychal Bell’s conviction of aggravated second-degree battery, one of his attorneys said this afternoon.

“We are ecstatic,” Bob Noel said.

This decision doesn’t mean Bell, now 17, will be automatically released. The ball, Noel said, is now in LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters’ court. Noel said Walters can appeal the decision; he can accept the decision and charge Bell as an adult with attempted murder; or Bell can be charged with aggravated second-degree battery as a juvenile.

… Noel argued in the September motion hearing that a juvenile can’t go through the adult justice system unless he or she is charged with one of a few crimes, including attempted murder. Aggravated second-degree battery is not one of them, he said.
Noel claimed Walters was employing “bait-and-switch” tactics to try Bell in the adult system.

I think “bait-and-switch” is a pretty good description too.  Obviously I’m pretty happy about this – I’ve never said he should get off scot-free for beating Justin Barker, just that the charges and potential sentences were inappropriate.  The rest of the Jena 6 ’s charges will probably be moved to juvenile court as well, unless Walters successfully appeals.  He’s got the next election to think of, and he just might do it.

In any event, a move back to juvenile court is the right thing to do.  If Bell goes on to commit more crimes later in life, as is certainly possible, then I will wish it wasn’t so – but I still think this case, these charges, were wrong.  He should be punished appropriately for each crime he’s committed – not overpunished now in an attempt to stop him from potentially committing a crime later.  That’s not how American justice is supposed to work.  The justice system needs to be fair, charges need to be appropriate, and it needs to be evenhanded and demonstrably so, or some juries will continue to let criminals off in an effort to balance out real and perceived injustice.  Want to put a stop to the “stop snitching” movement?  Then ensure fairness in the justice system – make it obviously fair, so that black folks will buy into the system and support it.

A noose was left hanging from a tree limb near a black cultural studies center on an American college campus.

That’s the scenario that University of Maryland police, with help from the FBI, are investigating as a possible hate crime that may be tied to a similar racial controversy playing out in Louisiana.

… There is recent precedent for racially motivated disputes on the Maryland campus. In 1999, police investigated a series of disparaging letters sent to some of the university’s black leaders. No charges were filed, Dillon said, but police did “get to the bottom” of the harassing letters.

Out of curiosity, because of the vagueness of the phrase “get to the bottom,” I checked to see if the letters were reported anywhere as a fake hate crime, something that has happened on many college campuses.  In this case I didn’t find anything.  Still, I don’t see any possible connection between this and the Jena 6, as the article suggests, and I think “recent” is quite a stretch for eight years ago.

You have “ER” to thank for putting that last straw on my back. They’re going to stay closed until – or if – I damn well feel like dealing with it again. It costs me time and money, and it’s just not worth it to keep on unless there is new information that will move this story forward. If you look at the last 50 or 100 comments, it’s all the same old BS. Nothing new, except more and more of my time sucked into arguing with people who have nothing to back up their case except an unproved assertion that they’re from Jena and they know The Actual Truth that is going on. Well, look at the last three years of posts – I’m perfectly willing to believe the media twists stories. Show me some evidence and I’ll be on your side. But your say so isn’t evidence. And since you refuse to put up – even though I’ve offered to pay – then you can just shut up for the time being – at least on this blog.

If you want to communicate with me, do it by email.

Another Town Talk article – this time on the latest court proceedings: Judge throws out one of Bell’s convictions

On more than one occasion as the attorneys and judges were arguing a motion, the packed courthouse audience reacted loudly with cheers or sounds of disbelief or disgust.

“I’m feeling strange because I’m arguing with your honor instead of the district attorney,” Scott said to Mauffray. The audience greeted this with cheers of agreement.

Mauffray said he was showing Scott what Walters had already pointed out during his arguments.

The judge was restating the DA’s arguments, and arguing with the defense attorney? He doesn’t sound very impartial to me. That is just as troubling as the statement, “the packed courthouse audience reacted loudly with cheers or sounds of disbelief or disgust.” Evidently the tension continues to mount as people continually become more entrenched in their positions – as I do, lacking any evidence to the contrary that the Jena 6 are being unfairly railroaded.   In fact, the report that the judge is openly siding with the DA on this instead of acting as a fair arbiter between the two parties adds credibility to the Jena 6 defenders, and puts the lie to all the commenters here who insist that we should trust and let the justice system work.  The only encouragement I’m seeing in this article is from Carwin Jones father, who sounds very reasonable:

Carwin Jones’ father, John Jenkins, said he was glad to hear the charges were reduced but that he will be even happier when they are reduced further.”I just wish we could sit down somewhere, all the families involved, and work this out, get it down to simple battery,” he said. “It is a blessing that (Barker) wasn’t hurt more. I just think we need to take care of this.”

Jenkins said the families weren’t trying to make excuses for their children, that some punishment needs to happen, but not what has been presented. He also said those responsible should take care of Barker’s thousands of dollars in medical bills.

“We’re not out here trying to make a fuss or make this a black and white thing,” he said. “The only objective is to get these charges away from our kids for a school fight. Something happened at that school that needs to come out. We aren’t trying to make excuses for our kids, just standing up for them.”

Jenkins said if the charges had remained at aggravated battery — what the boys were initially charged with — or were simple battery, “all this wouldn’t be here,” he said gesturing to the courthouse lawn filled with reporters and cameramen from local and national media.

Indeed.

I just noticed this retraction over at FOJ and I’d like to second it, pending further information. I believed that Jessica Hooter’s mother was on the jury – it now appears that she may not have been (emphasis added):

Several people told me that the Jessica Hooter who testified during the trial was the daughter of the Ms. Hooter who was on the jury. A journalist following up on my report has discovered that this is probably not the case.

I just found this photo in the CNN article Residents: Nooses spark school violence, divide town, and my first thought was, “You have GOT to be kidding me. A felony conviction for THIS?” I knew Reed Walters didn’t have any serious medical testimony to back him up, but I figured the photos had to be sufficiently gory for the jury to come back with that verdict. How anyone can look at this photo and think “beaten half to death” or “stomped on face” or any of the other rhetoric that has been thrown around so liberally is beyond me.

Seriously, future comments where I see someone going on an on about these dire injuries and “bleeding out his ears,” I’m deleting it. I don’t care who it’s from or whether there is anything else of value in the comment. Whether the writer intends it or not, it’s a lie, and this photo proves it. And don’t give me the whole “$12,000 in medical bills,” either. Over half of that was the ambulance ride, ER and CT scan, and the rest was probably for more expensive testing in a desperate attempt to justify these excessive charges. I’ll put the best possible face on it and suggest it was CYA for the doctors or “concerned parent” medical overkill. That, or they flew him to the Mayo Clinic. Jeez. What utter crap. This really makes me mad.