Please read the latest Jena Six post here.

KATC – Jury deliberating in Louisiana racial beating case

The five-woman, one-man all-white jury started deliberating around 11 a.m. Thursday. In closing argments, LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters showed them emergency room photographs of Barker, 17, taken after the Dec. 4 attack. They showed Barker’s badly swollen face with one blackened eye swollen completely shut.

Aggravated second-degree battery includes the use of a dangerous weapon and Walters said the shoes the attackers used to kick Barker after he was knocked unconscious constituted weapons. As for the conspiracy charge, Walters said Bell took part in the attack with others. That constitutes conspiracy, he said, even if there was no specific plan to attack Barker.

Trying to head off the possibility that jurors might convict Bell of a lesser crime, Reed referred to the pictures of Barker’s battered face. “Is that simple battery? It is not,” Walters said.

Defense attorney Blane Williams said Walters had failed to prove that Bell had even taken part in a crime, much less an attack with a weapon. A day earlier, after Barker said he had been struck from behind and immediately went unconscious, there was conflicting testimony from witnesses as to whether the initial attacker was Bell and whether that attacker was wearing a green hooded jacket or a red shirt.

Williams also sought to raise doubt about Barker’s testimony that he still suffers headaches and forgetfulness since the beating. He noted a nurses testimony that Barker had a history of migraines before the fight. “If I say I have memory loss, can anybody know if I have it?” Williams asked.

Williams and Walters differed on the significance of Barker having attended a nighttime class ring ceremony hours after the attack. Walters said Barker skipped a reception after the ceremony because of lingering pain from the beating.

“You get your ring. What else does a high schooler want _ a reception? More speeches?” Williams said.

Oh, and here’s why they’re pushing the ridiculous story of memory loss and headaches, when a reasonable person will conclude that Barker got a bloody nose, black eye, bruises and swelling. In State of Louisiana vs. Jason Hellou, Hellou was originally convicted of second degree battery, the same charge as Bell. He was convicted by a unanimous 6 person jury and appealed. On appeal, the Supreme Court of Louisiana vacated the conviction.

Accordingly, we vacate the defendant’s conviction for second degree battery and enter a conviction for simple battery, as statutory responsive verdict pursuant to LSA-C.Cr.P.art. 814(15). We remand this matter to the trial court for resentencing for simple battery.

LSA-R.S. 14:34.1 provides that: Second degree battery is a battery committed without the consent of the victim when the offender intentionally inflicts serious bodily injury.

For purposes of this article, serious bodily injury means bodily injury which involves unconsciousness, extreme physical pain or protracted and obvious disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty, or a substantial risk of death.

Whoever commits the crime of second degree battery shall be fined not more than two thousand dollars or imprisoned, with or without hard labor, for not more than five years, or both.

What interesting is how much the Hellou case has in common with this one, and a key element was how badly the victim was hurt. That’s why there’s a big push to show that Barker sustained serious injuries, suffered extreme pain, protracted loss or impairment, etc. Even if Bell is convicted today, there’s an excellent chance the Louisiana Supreme Court will kick it back for a more just charge and sentence.

Please read the latest Jena Six post here.

Scroll down for the update.

There’s most testimony about the attack/fight/altercation in this Town Talk article by Abbey Brown: Jury may get ‘Jena Six’ case today

During Williams’ cross-examination of the students, he pointed out differences in their stories. Of the 11 who testified, four — including Barker — said they couldn’t identify who first hit Barker. Another four told the jury that Bell was the one who hit Barker, knocking him onto the concrete just outside the school gym.

Three students testified that someone wearing a jacket and hood — some said it was green — hit Barker and then ran off. Those students said that because they couldn’t see the person’s face, they didn’t know if it was Bell or not.

Jessica Hooter, who said she was walking in front of Barker and his girlfriend, Kari Randal, that day, was one of the four who testified it was Bell who hit Barker.

“I heard, ‘There’s that white m-fer that was running his mouth,’” she testified. “… (Bell) punched (Barker) on the side of the head, and he fell to the ground.”

Hooter said that after punching Barker, Bell started kicking him, as did Bailey. She said there were “maybe 10″ boys there that started kicking Barker after he was unconscious. Others testified that there were 12 to 15 surrounding Barker and kicking him.

Eric Scroggs told jurors he heard a pop — the sound of someone hitting Barker — and then saw “a bunch of black boys jump on him” including Jones and Bailey.

Lacey Elliott testified that after Bell hit Barker, Jones, Bailey and Shaw started “stomping and kicking” Barker.

During Lexi Jones’ testimony, she said she saw a guy in a green jacket with a hood come from the right and hit Barker on the side. She said Jones and Bailey were “stomping and kicking as hard as they could” on Barker’s head.

Both Lexi Jones and then-Jena High Assistant Principal Gawan Burgess testified that they thought Barker was dead after seeing him lifeless with blood coming out of his ears and nose.

“He opened his eyes, and his eyes rolled back and he gasped,” Burgess said. “… It didn’t look good.”

Later Burgess said the injuries looked more serious than they actually were.

Emma Humphries, emergency room supervisor at LaSalle General Hospital at the time of the attack, said Barker sustained a number of cuts and bruises, including a serious abrasion of the eye. She noted that he also had a swollen eye.

A bloody nose, not a broken nose, is NOT AT ALL consistent with having someone “stomping and kicking as hard as they could” on your head. If these boys were being prosecuted for simple battery, I wouldn’t have much to say. A high school fight easily falls under that classification. If the people who attacked black students over the weekend were also being prosecuted, I wouldn’t have anything at all to say about this case. But these charges are outrageous, they are being applied to a select group, and the testimony is too unreliable to put these kids in jail for the better part of their lives. This is an injustice and an embarrassment to Louisiana.

According to F.O.J., Bell’s attorney isn’t going to present a defense. And he apparently made that decision without consulting his client.

Mykal told several of us during a break in the action that his attorney didn’t consult him before he decided to take a dive in this case.

Read it all. If this is true, the whole thing just got extended beyond belief, because the ACLU will certainly get involved in whatever the appeals process is.

Update: more from FOJ on Bell’s attorney and his failure to call any defense witnesses. The Defense Rests

Please read the latest Jena Six post here.

The following is a comment from a Jena resident. I’m not going to fisk it, because that implies I think the whole thing is crap, but I am going to respond to it inline for clarity. My comments are bracketed.

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I’m from Jena. It’s very sad how the media has created a frenzy over this incident, riding on the coattails of racism. People in Jena are going about their daily lives as we speak, as if little is going on. There aren’t white folks lined up on one side of the line and black folks lined up on the other. This town has its racist issues, like MANY towns in this area of the country. Most people in this town have friends across racial boundaries. Yes, there are some very racist people around, on BOTH sides of the fence. Some black citizens are as racist as some white citizens. Being from this town, I have several clarifications that need to be made that will paint a more vivid, less media-hungry picture: [Why have so many from Jena latched on to this "coattails of racism" talking point? Do you honestly feel this selective prosecution is NOT racist? I am aware that not every single soul in Jena is racist. I don't think you each have a white robe in your house. But overall I think you're all a lot more racist than you even understand, or you wouldn't tolerate this from your D.A.]

1.) Today, the prosecution had up to 20 witnesses, many witnessed one of the defendants coming up from behind Michael Barker and punching him in the back of the head, rendering him unconscious. The others proceeded to kick and stomp him while he was unconscious. One of the teachers that arrived at the scene thought he might be dead because his eyes were rolled to the back of his head. Black or white, this TRANSCENDS a typical “schoolhouse fight.” These 6 guys attacked and put a student in the hospital. I DO believe attempted murder is taking it too far. But they do deserve some punishment for what they did. Just because this guy was a friend of some of the students that hung the nooses didn’t give the others a right to resort to violence. By the way, for the Mychale Bell trial, not one person showed up as a witness in his defense. [First of all, the victim is JUSTIN Barker. How can you be from Jena and not know that? Second, the prosecution's twenty witnesses had many conflicting statements. Your description of this event is NOT AT ALL consistent with Barker's injuries. Yes, he was injuried, but certainly not to the extent that a beating like the one described would cause. No bodywide contusions/abrasions, no serious head injuries like a concussion, no broken nose, no loose teeth, no renal injuries even though he was allegedly kicked repeatedly... NONE of the above. If he had any kind of serious injury, you folks would be shouting it from the housetops to justify this criminal prosecution. They don't exist and it can't be justified. In short, that dog won't hunt.]

2.) Despite the media frenzy, Jena is not a bad town to live in. Like mentioned before, business is going on as usual here. I saw a black man that I went to school with today and we both waved at each other and smiled. Most people in this town have friends (even close friends) across racial boundaries. [I never said they didn't. But nevertheless, the problem is real. Read this description of your town by a pastor in your town:

"LaSalle Parish is awash in racism: True racism. Not the sort of affirmative action/name-calling/reparations-seeking fluff that keeps Jesse Jackson and liberal do-gooders in business, but a systematic, culture of bigotry, neglected by the scrutiny of time.

Here in the piney woods of central Louisiana, where some gentle, old, Christian, white women still call graying black men “boy” and some angry, young, Christian, black teens attack pizza delivery trucks that would dare enter their neighborhood, racism and bigotry are such a part of life that most of the citizens do not even recognize it. Cross Highway127 just south of Jena and you enter two different worlds, separated by class and race. If we as Christians face powers, principalities, and rulers of darkness in high places it is certain that part of the spiritual wickedness arrayed against the citizens of LaSalle Parish is hatred born of racism."]

3.) The media is pretending as if these 6 students were model citizens just trying to stick up for their right to be in a fair society. Most of these 6 have been in trouble several times with the school and the law. These aren’t straight A students whose lives have been ruined by a town of racist white people. Unfortunately one student had a football scholarship for college. It’s sad that this happened to him. But shouldn’t people be responsible for their own actions? He should have considered his future before doing what he did. [So the qualification to be angry about injustice is perfection? Martin Luther King, Jr. plagiarized a bunch of stuff in college, should we forget about everything he did? "Most of these 6 have been in trouble several times with the school and the law." Based on how they are being prosecuted now, I don't find the concept that black kids have been cracked down on hard for things that were overlooked in white kids surprising at all. Please give more information about the trouble they were in so we can all assess it.]

4.) The guys that hung those nooses deserve to be punished. Their actions were clearly wrong. But the actions that followed took a much more violent path. Over the next several months after this happened…there was several black kids (possibly the ones in trouble here) who were going around town trying to pick fights with white teenagers who were country-acting. Matter of fact, this was the case when the guy pulled the gun on the black guys. There were several of them about to start a fight. This is why he pulled out the gun. Whether or not you agree with his actions (pulling the gun), he was still trying to protect himself from getting in a fight with 4 or 5 people. The black student that got beat up by the white student was ONE of the guys that tried to “jump” that guy that night. The media portrays the gun incident as if they were going about their daily business when this white guy suddenly whips out a gun and aims it at them. That wasn’t the case. The town has been uneasy about this situation for several months and he felt a need to protect himself when 4 or 5 guys are approaching him with questionable intentions. [If you can't see that the nooses were a threat that the black community would take seriously and be fearful of, then you are being willfully dense. "Country-acting"? You mean acting like redneck tough guys. Given the racially charged environment, again, not surprising that they might do that. But I'm still not buying your characterization of this event; that the white guy was about to be jumped. Statistically and historically, 12% of the population isn't going to go around picking fights, especially when they know The Law is going to treat them worse for the same offenses whites get away with.]

5.) The comment saying “Teenage boys watch MTV, not Lonesome Dove.” I agree with the person above. This article doesn’t understand the culture we live in down here in the south. Teenagers listen to ’70’s country and older rock; they watch older movies; and most people (including teenagers) have watched Lonesome Dove. So think twice before you assume that every teenager is like the ones YOU are familiar with. [I understand it just fine, hon, I'm FROM Louisiana and I still live here. I have family out in various parts of the state. I absolutely DO NOT BUY the idea that the nooses were a harmless prank and that teenagers make entertainment choices similar to those of people my age.]

6.) This article also doesn’t mention something else: many of the white females at Jena High School were complaining about this particular group of black guys who were being overly flirtatious w/ them (pinching their butts). These black guys sat under this tree to get close to the girls so they could flirt with them some more. [Ah yes, the black man attacking the white woman meme. I knew that would make it out of the closet sooner or later. The Klan has gotten a LOT of mileage from that meme. I take it you are NOT a woman, or you wouldn't characterize a pinch of the butt as "overly flirtatious." It's not flirtatious, it's battery and quite possibly sexual assault. I don't buy for a single minute that such a vastly outnumbered minority would take their lives in their hands that way for the "thrill" of touching some white chick's behind. You have been sold a bill of goods. Hope you kept the receipt. Sorry, please play again.]

7.) I’m sure this article makes it sounds like the school is racially segregated, where whites are on one side and blacks are on another. The recess area IS segregated, but only by choice. Some white students talk to the black students and vice versa. No trouble ever occurs unless somebody starts trying to cause it. It’s strange how no one says anything about New York, where every ethnicity has it’s own part of town (SEGREGATED), but for this small town’s high school to be segregated, it is racist and unjust. [Do you not understand the difference between voluntary segregation which I agree happens all the time in all parts of the country, and feeling the need to ask permission to enter an area?]

I now realize the harsh realities of the American media. Take a story and put the spin on it that makes people feel passionate (even angry) about something. Racism is a sensitive issue and should be treated like it. This town is NOT the way the media has portrayed it, and most of the actions these articles and stories mention that the white people do in this town have a horrible bias.

In closing, racism is alive and well in this town, but across both sides of the train tracks. These series of events were provoked by both sides. Both were at fault, and all who have broken the law should be punished. End of story. [If "ALL" who had broken the law were, in fact, being punished, I wouldn't have much to write about, would I? Everyone isn't being prosecuted evenly. That's my whole complaint.]

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