I recognized the importance of justice for the Jena Six early on, and wrote about the case frequently. And later when we found out more about Mychal Bell’s past criminal record, I explained that his previous crimes did not negate his right to equal justice in the Jena beating case. After the crescendo of the march demanding equal justice in September, DA Reed Walters’ pathetic rant of a response, the backlash of nooses springing up around the country, and the re-incarceration of Mychal Bell; I like many writers, advocates and activists kind of took my eye off the ball of events down in Jena.

An email I received yesterday has refocused my attention. It turns out that Mychall Bell is positioned to be the prosecution’s star witness against the other 5 defendants in the beating case.

Think what you will of LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters, he has done a masterful job of pitting Jena 6 defendants against one another and the result will probably mean jail time for each Black teenager.

Of the six Black teens accused of beating Justin Barker, a White schoolmate last year in Jena, La., only Mychal Bell is known to have had a criminal record, which included two battery incidents and two charges of criminal damage to property. By first focusing on Bell, the D.A. has been able to portray Jena 6 as hardened criminals and, equally important, force Bell into a compromising position. Recently, Bell struck a deal with the D.A. that includes testifying against his five co-defendants, if needed. Op-Ed: A Split Among The Jena 6, George Curry – BlackPressUSA -Reclaim our Civil Rights

The guilty plea may make sense for Bell given his priors, but that is not a universal sentiment.

Marcus Jones, the father of lead defendant [Mychal Bell] in the controversial Jena 6 case couldn’t have been any clearer.

”They sold Mychal out,” Jones said of the legal team representing Mychal Bell. ”I just don’t understand it.” Jones was as stunned as [was] much of America and the world [by] the news that Mychal Bell, 17, had pleaded guilty in the racially charged case that has ignited claims of judicial bias and ignited Black activisim not seen since the days of the Civil Rights Movement. Bell pleaded guilty to second degree battery for punching Justin Barker, a White teenager.

The news that Bell had agreed to an 18-month sentence and to pay restitution to the White teenager he now admits beating has caused many now to focus on the remaining five defendants, who will be offered the same plea agreement as Bell. It has also caused some to question Bell’s legal team, which sought the agreement with the LaSalle County District Attorney’s office.

Bell’s attorney, Robert Nowell, said he advised Bell to accept the plea bargain because the district attorney’s office had ”overwhelming evidence to convict him.”

Louis Grandison Scott, Bell’s lead attorney, said he told Bell he was prepared to take the case ”all the way through,” however, he thought the judge would probably convict Bell and sentence him to more than 18 months. Even if they had won an appeal of the conviction, Scott said, Bell would have already served more than the 18 months in the plea bargain. Bell pleaded guilty to second degree battery for punching Justin Barker, a White teenager. What Now With Jena? All Eyes Turn to Other Defendants, Valencia Mohammad, Special to the NNPA from the Afro-American Newspapers

That Mychal Bell has agreed to testify against his co-defendants disturbs me on a number of levels, not the least of which is that one of the defendants has consistently maintained that he was not present during the beating and only arrived on scene as people were starting to flee. This new aspect of the prosecution’s case illustrates why the concept of “no snitching” has such a hold in the Black community.

Bell is presently serving an 18-month sentence for the previous juvenile charges. In exchange for his pleading guilty to second-degree battery in connection with the attack on Barker, the prosecutor dropped aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit battery charges against Bell. He was sentenced to an additional 18 months to run concurrently with the term he is already serving. That means, in effect, Bell will serve a single 18-month sentence that will be counted twice, for his old juvenile offenses and for his recent plea. He has already served 10 months.

If Bell serves all of his time, he could be released in June. However, those close to the case expect him to be transferred to a group home rather than spending his remaining time behind bars.

With Bell being placed in the position of serving as the star witness against the other teens, they are more likely to be convicted if they refuse to follow Bell’s example and cop a plea. This is the underbelly of an unfair judicial system. Upon entering his guilty plea, Bell admitted that he hit the White student, knocking him unconscious, and joining others in kicking him after he fell to the floor. Therefore, the D.A. will be using the most culpable of the six teens to obtain convictions against those who were less involved. That’s the way the judicial system works – or doesn’t work. Op-Ed: A Split Among The Jena 6, George Curry – BlackPressUSA -Reclaim our Civil Rights

I am ashamed that we dropped the ball on this one just when we should have been picking it up – again.

…on Nov. 7, when four others were scheduled to enter their plea in Jena, there were no national civil rights leaders present. Busloads of students from around the nation did not roll into town. And radio talk show hosts, present in abundance on Sept. 20, were nowhere to be found. Instead, they had moved on, focusing on yet another demonstration in Washington in a futile effort to get the Justice Department to be more sensitive to the selective prosecution of African-Americans.

It is disturbing that civil rights leaders gave more support to the person who has agreed to testify against his co-defendants than the teens who had less to do with the beating.

If Bell testifies against four others – Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis, Theo Shaw — they could be tried as adults because they were at least 17 years old at the time of the incident. The sixth defendant, like Bell, was a juvenile at the time. Although news organizations do not customarily identify juveniles by name, many – including Black publications – have published his name.

As I said in a previous column, it’s time to return to Jena because justice has not been served; it is even less likely to be served now that Mychal Bell has agreed to testify against the other five defendants.

Those anointed as leaders in our community are good at putting on one-day events. And apparently that’s all Sept. 20 was. The question is whether they will show real leadership and lobby on behalf of the other five teens in Jena as hard as they worked for the release of Bell. If they can’t do that, I think I’ll skip such self-serving publicity stunts in the future. Op-Ed: A Split Among The Jena 6, George Curry – BlackPressUSA -Reclaim our Civil Rights

I have some major catching up to do: reading and writing. You will be seeing more posts about the goings on in Jena here at All About Race.

READ MORE - Jena One plus Five – Great post by Changeseeker.

READ MORE - Black Amazon speaks on it – “…The same boy

with years of prison over his head…”

READ MORE- M addresses the injustice of the justice system as it pertains to plea bargaining – Jena Six Developments (And the Institutional Racism Continues)