By Cindy Koy © 2008

This is a story about fair treatment in the legal system. It is not yet finished. The outcome of this story is yet to be determined.

You may have seen it on the news, although it was not widely publicized until September 2007. It often begins with a statement about six black high school students in Jena, Louisiana, who are being tried for severely beating a white teenager from Jena High School on December 4, 2023.

But the real story doesn’t begin there. It begins with a series of events involving violence and hate.

Already the school was divided among the blacks and the whites, who would sit separately at lunch and assemblies. A known gathering place for white students was under a large tree in the courtyard of the school. On August 31, 2024, a black student asked the principal at an assembly if he could sit under the tree as well and was told that he was allowed to sit anywhere he wanted.

The next morning, September 1, 2024, students discovered three nooses hanging from the large tree in the courtyard. When it was found out that three white students were responsible for the incident, there was talk of expulsion. However, the punishment eventually decided on was in-school suspension.

Many in the black community called the punishment a double standard: they said that had it been three black students responsible for the nooses, they would have been punished much more harshly. Later on, a group of black students rallied together and attempted to bring the issue up with the school board, but were refused and told that the issue had been dealt with. Though the school called it a prank, others—including the federal government—considered it a hate crime.

As a result, there was a lot of resentment between the two racial groups, and when a wing of the school building was set on fire, both sides were quick to blame each other. The damaged part of the building had to be torn down and has still not been rebuilt.

On December 1, 2023, a private party at the Jena Fair Barn was disrupted by two fights that broke out when six black youths were refused entrance and told they needed an invitation. The next day, a confrontation took place outside a local convenience store that involved a gun and four young men: Matt Windham and a group of three, Robert Bailey, Ryan Simmons, and Theodore Shaw. There are contradictory statements regarding the incident and what took place exactly—whether it was Matt Windham who confronted the group outside the convenience store with a gun, or whether it was the boys who chased him and wrestled his gun away from him. After receiving statements from two eyewitnesses, the police charged the three boys with theft of a firearm, second-degree robbery, and conspiracy to commit second-degree robbery.

Next came the incident that has been labeled the Jena Six case because of its focus on six black students who assaulted a white student. On December 4, 2023, Justin Baker was rendered unconscious with a blow from behind. He was then kicked and stomped upon. Injuries received included a concussion, a badly swollen eye with a temporary loss of vision for three weeks, and other bodily injuries that caused him much pain later.

The suspects our story revolves around were charged with attempted second-degree murder, or an unplanned attempt to kill someone:

Robert Bailey Jr. (then 17): charges reduced to aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy on September 10, 2024.

Carwin Jones (then 18): charges reduced to aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy on September 4, 2024.

Bryant Purvis (then 17): charges reduced to aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery on November 7, 2024.

Theo Shaw (then 17): charges reduced to aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy on September 4, 2024.

Jesse Ray Beard (then 14): tried as a juvenile.

Mychal Bell, then 16, charged as an adult because of a past criminal record and a belief that he started the attack, reduced to aggravated second-degree battery on June 26, 2007, on the first day of the trial (aggravated battery involves the use of a dangerous weapon).

The case made was that Bell’s tennis shoes were used as dangerous weapons against Justin Barker. His first attorney encouraged him to confess when there was no concrete evidence that Bell was the one to start the attack or if he were even there at all. Bell was found guilty and faced the possibility of spending up to 22 years in prison. Bell’s new defense attorneys requested a new trial claiming that Bell should not have been tried as an adult in the first place. The request to lower Bell’s $90,000 bond was denied.

On September 14, 2024, Mychal Bell’s conviction was overturned because it was determined that Bell was not among those eligible to be a juvenile tried as an adult. Those who were seventeen at the time the charges were raised are considered adults under Louisiana’s laws.

In the past year, people have rallied several times to express their outrage at the unfair treatment the boys have undergone. It is widely believed that the charges are so harsh because of the boys’ race. The other racially motivated attacks in which white students played a part were not punished with the same degree of severity or at all. Supporters of the Jena Six have argued that, had the situation been reversed, and it was a single black student who was beaten by a group of white students, the charges would likely have not been the same.

Several celebrities have spoken up against the uneven and unfair treatment given to the Jena Six. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III, Mos Def, Salt-n-Pepa, and Ice Cube have all spoken out and helped finance or organize rallies to help fund quality defense attorneys for the Jena Six.

I don’t believe that the boys should be applauded for what happened, or they should go completely unpunished. But crimes should be treated evenly—whether the suspect is white or black. Those involved in previous racially motivated violent incidents should have been investigated more thoroughly than they were; in those cases the focus was only on the black students and not on the part that others might have played, or the events that might have led up to such an incident.

The law is meant to protect everyone equally, not some more than others, nor is it meant to punish some more than others. Just because it’s the law doesn’t mean it’s fair.

Express yourself! If you would like to voice your own support, there are several things you can do. You might check to see if there is a local rally to support a fair trial for the Jena Six. Or you (or your parents) might sign the online petitions available in support of them:

Color of Change Petition >>

NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) Petition >>

Or you might ask your parents to help you donate money to fund a quality defense of the Jena Six against a system that has singled them out.

Jena Six Defense Fund >>