[Peace] A First-Hand Account of the Jena 6 Case by Terry Davis, Investigator for Mychal Bell

[Morton K. Brussel]

Thanks, Brian, for transmitting/relaying this talk to us.  --Mort

On Oct 16, 2007, at 8:19 AM, Brian Dolinar wrote:

> For anyone who missed the talk Friday night, here is a transcript.
> There is also a nice photo of Terry at ucimc.org.
>
>
> A First-Hand Account of the Jena 6 Case by Terry Davis,  
> Investigator for Mychal Bell
>
> The following is a talk given by Terry Davis, investigator with the  
> legal defense team for Mychal Bell, one of the members of the Jena  
> 6 on trial in Louisiana. Davis was in Jena for three weeks and was  
> present for the historic march there on Sept. 20. She gave a talk  
> in Champaign-Urbana on October 12, 2007 at the Urban League.
>
>
> What I want to do in talking with you tonight is to share with you  
> the particularly unique and gripping story of Jena. I don't think  
> this story became world famous by accident. There's something about  
> it that just grabs at the heart and I think that made it big, even  
> though there are things like what have been happening to the Jena  
> six, unfortunately, way too much and in way too many places.
> I do work with the public defender's in Chicago. Working on death  
> penalty cases, I do what's called mitigation work, which is a form  
> of investigation. It's helping the defense attorney to prevent  
> death sentence if possible. I had some training and experience that  
> I thought may be helpful for one or any of the Jena 6 kids with  
> their legal case. I passed the hat around among my friends and  
> raised, in fact, a very impressive amount of money, I was quite  
> amazed that people responded as generously as they did. So I had my  
> expenses covered and I hopped in my car and went to Jena.
>
> I hooked up with the defense team of Mychal Bell, who is probably  
> the most famous of the Jena 6 because he's the one who went to  
> trial first.
>
> I read in the paper about this amazing series of incidents that  
> took place in Jena starting when a black student in the high school  
> asked the principal if the black kids were allowed to sit under the  
> white tree, that is the tree in the school yard where some of the  
> white kids gathered. Historically no black kids had sat there. He  
> said they could. And this young man, Ken Purvis, and a few of his  
> friends, without any fanfare, just went one lunch period and sat  
> there. The next day when the students came to school there were  
> three nooses hanging in the very same tree.
>
> It's Just a Prank
>
> Everything you've heard, it may be true. But there is so much more  
> that makes it so much worse than you even know. For example, the  
> kids that usually sat there in the morning, I guess a lot of them  
> instinctively pulled back and didn't sit down, but somehow they  
> knew they didn't want to sit under those nooses. There were  
> teachers standing around laughing in the morning. One of the kids  
> went and told the principal there's nooses in the tree, and he  
> said, "Oh, ha, ha, ha. It's just a prank." When the kids went to  
> their first period class, those nooses were still there. They did  
> take them down then. But it was a sign, I think, to the kids that  
> it really didn't matter.
>
> People in the South, black and white, I think have much stronger  
> sense of history in a way than people in Illinois—for better and  
> for worse. I don't think there was anyone in that school yard that  
> didn't know what the nooses meant. To the black kids, a lot of whom  
> I interviewed in the course of my work, it was a horrible shock  
> that their school mates wanted to say something that violent and  
> ugly to them.
>
> You've probably heard how the principal initially wanted to expel  
> the kids who put up the nooses, and then the school board overrode  
> his decision and made it into a minor offense rather than a major  
> offense. Then began a very tense Fall. I don't think you can  
> understand this case without picturing the tension that existed  
> among the kids from that point on. The day of the nooses just about  
> every black student in the high school, spontaneously, they went at  
> lunchtime and sat under the tree. I don't know if they thought they  
> were having a sit-in, but that was what they were doing anyway.
>
> The response by the powers-that-be was immediate and they had a  
> lock-down at the school. They had a heavy police presence at the  
> school, including dogs, following this. The District Attorney, who  
> wears at least two hats in Jena, one of which is attorney for the  
> school board, came to a school assembly of the kids and looking  
> right at the black kids he said, "I can take away your life with  
> the stroke of my pen." There is not one student who was in that  
> room who doesn't remember that like it's emblazoned on their mind.
>
> The kids I talked to largely felt that their needs and concerns  
> were being overlooked completely. There were fights, there was  
> tension, there was race-baiting, name-calling going on during the  
> Fall. After Thanksgiving there was a series of incidents that  
> culminated in the incident for which the Jena 6 were arrested.
>
> There was a situation in a convenience store where a young white  
> man drew a gun on some of the black kids. They took they gun and  
> ran away. And the black kids were arrested for stealing his gun.  
> Were they supposed to hand it back and say, "Now you can shoot me"?  
> Nothing happened to the white guy, who was an adult.
>
> The other incident was when a young man and a couple of his friends  
> who were black football players at the high school were invited to  
> a white party. When they went they were jumped and beaten up.  
> Nothing ever happened to the people who beat them up.
>
> The other thing, and I didn't know this until I got down there,  
> there was a huge fire at the high school before that weekend and  
> the school was closed for a few days. Much of the school was  
> destroyed. They came to school the following Monday, they had been  
> off for the fire. Nobody knew who set the fire and to this day  
> nobody has been and nobody claims to know who set the fire. The  
> black kids were afraid they were going to be blamed for it. White  
> people are saying black people did it. Black people are saying  
> white people did it. All the kids were freaked out about the fire.
>
> They didn't even know where their classes were going to be held.  
> They show up in the morning as usual, their group, the little band  
> of black kids—because there are not many in the school—and then the  
> much larger groups of white kids separately glaring at each other.  
> It was a recipe for disaster. Nothing was done. There were no  
> social workers to get the kids to feel better, they were just  
> policing them.
>
> Then at lunch time a white boy, Justin Barker, was punched on the  
> side of the face, he fell down, he may have been kicked a few  
> times. The incident last approximately nine or ten seconds, and  
> that was then end of that.
>
> Now, let me say, Jena High has its share of fights. Maybe you could  
> say more than its share. Usually what happens is you get two days  
> in what they call an alternative school, which is like a suspension  
> and they go and learn how to manage their anger. In this case, they  
> charge them with felonies. They charge six young men with attempted  
> murder, or they reduce the charges to aggravated battery and  
> conspiracy.
>
> The Trial of Mychal Bell
>
> Before I came to Jena I read the transcript of the first of the  
> Jena 6 to go to trial, and he was my client Mychal Bell. It was a  
> stunning experience just to read the transcript. I doubt that all  
> of you are lawyers, but I bet even the youngest people here know  
> that you're supposed to be impartial in order to serve on a jury.  
> We had potential jurors being questioned, "Do you know anything  
> about this case?" They would respond, "Only what I've read in the  
> papers." The papers in Jena had vitriolic attacks on the Jena 6  
> every day—day in, day out—just wild attacks on these kids. This one  
> woman juror was asked, "Do you think you can be fair?" She said,  
> "No, not really." She was seated.
>
> The jury was all white. There were several people who said they  
> didn't know if they could be fair and the Judge would say, "You can  
> be fair can't you?" The Judge was asked later, how did you know she  
> could be fair. He said, "Oh, by her body English."
>
> The District Attorney, throughout, he would stumble over his words,  
> he would start a sentence and the Judge would finish it for him.  
> There was sort of a symbiotic relationship between the D.A. and the  
> Judge, who had been working together and handling case after case  
> in a similar fashion, I have not doubt, for years.
>
> The Defense Attorney was a court-appointed lawyer who seemed to  
> feel the weight of the case enough that he didn't want to stick his  
> neck out too far. He didn't call a single witness.
>
> I found out after reading the transcript that there was one  
> teacher, and only one teacher, who actually saw the beginning of  
> the fight. The others arrived seconds later, but they didn't see it  
> start. Mychal Bell was accused of throwing that first punch that  
> knocked Justin out temporarily and caused him to fall. And then he  
> was kicked. But the punch, that was Mychal's contribution to the  
> situation, according to the prosecution. There was a teacher who  
> happened to be coming in front of where Justin was heading, so he  
> was able to see it uniquely well. He made a written statement which  
> he turned into the principal that very same day saying that he saw  
> who threw the punch. Guess what, it wasn't Mychal Bell, it was  
> another kid. He was not called as a witness. He had moved to  
> another town. Nobody knew where he had gone. I found that coach. He  
> said it was somebody else and he said a lot of other things that  
> were very important. But he was never called as a witness, even  
> though his statement was in there before the trial.
>
> The Judge made it very plain in his remarks to the jury that for a  
> conspiracy to exist nothing needs to be said. But he never did say  
> what did have to happen for there to be a conspiracy.
>
> A simple battery—boom, I hit you—that's a misdemeanor. In order to  
> make it a felony it has to be aggravated, and aggravated means  
> dangerous weapon. What's a dangerous weapon? In this case, tennis  
> shoes. That was the dangerous weapon. Of course, Mychal, in  
> punching, he did not have a shoe in his hand, if he did punch at  
> all, which as I said is open to considerable doubt. That's where  
> the conspiracy comes in, because he was going to knock him down and  
> other people were going to kick him.
>
> He was found guilty and facing a sentence of up to 22 and a half  
> years because of the conspiracy charge added on to the aggravated  
> battery. That trial has now been vacated because they found it was  
> not appropriate for him to be tried as an adult. So it's going to  
> go back to a juvenile court. The other kids, with some variation,  
> they are facing the same thing, only they are a little older than  
> Mychal so some of them are going to be in adult court.
>
> A lot of people don't realize these kids were leaders in the  
> school. They were all athletes, they were stars of the football  
> team. Mychal was an honors student and could have gone, and I'm  
> hoping still will, go to the college of his choice because he was  
> that good a football player. And very popular with black and white.  
> He had a lot of friends, especially among his teammates, black and  
> white. He was somebody that was looked up to. Not only in the  
> school but in the whole community. And the other kids were too. The  
> whole legal machine came down on them very suddenly after the  
> football season was over, which a lot of people commented on.
>
> Jena is very, very small. There's no movie theater. There's four  
> stop lights. Nowhere to eat. One motel. Within it the black  
> community is very small, maybe fifteen percent. This is a very  
> isolated black community. With no economic power, no political  
> power. The black people have been gerrymandered out of Jena so they  
> can't even vote for Mayor because they are just on the other side  
> of the city line. There's very few jobs. There's no black people in  
> the library, in the city clerk's office. There's one black person  
> who works in the bank, but he works in a room where he cannot be  
> seen. In some ways it is a throw back to the years ago—but is it?  
> Is this a throw back to years ago, or is it that you don't see it  
> unless it's pushed right up against your face?
>
> It's so hard on these families. They do not have resources. They  
> have lawyers are working pro bono, but they don't have any of the  
> extra things you need. When you've got kids, for example, who have  
> been expelled from school. The ones who have been released, they  
> can't go to school, their parents can't send them to a private  
> academy. And they're just kind of kicking around. They should be  
> making the touch downs, instead they're looking at it from the  
> outside. It's just really tough. They don't have computers, they  
> don't have tutors. These kids need to be in school, and their  
> parents agree.
>
> Rally in Jena
>
> I just want to say a few words about the rally. I don't think  
> anybody was prepared when the rally took place. Busses came from,  
> particularly from the South, but all around the country. They came  
> from South Carolina, they came from Texas, they came from all over  
> Louisiana. Bus after bus, after bus, after bus. Lots of young  
> people. It was just amazing. It was like a pilgrimage.
>
> The white people in Jena had been sure that the town was going to  
> burn to the ground when the rally took place. They were terrified  
> for a week. They could talk of nothing else. They closed the  
> courthouse, they closed the school for two days, they closed  
> McDonald's. They huddled behind their closed windows wondering what  
> was going to happen.
>
> The black people in Jena got out in their lawn chairs, they set up  
> their barbeque grills, they made up their own t-shirt. Every black  
> resident of the community under 30 was participating all day long  
> in the march. And probably most of the adults as well.
>
> There were a lot of people who had signs that said, "I am the Jena  
> 6." Another slogan that was on a lot of them was, "Enough is  
> enough." There was a real feeling that the drive in this country to  
> incarcerate young black people has just got to be turned around.  
> It's just a terrible blot on our country. It's a misery for a whole  
> generation. It's going to be more than a generation.
>
> But I really have the feeling that out of this is going to grow a  
> new generation of leadership. I really felt that there were young  
> people who were serious, really serious, and not going to let this  
> drop. I sure hope I'm right.
>
> -- 
> Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
> 303 W. Locust St.
> Urbana, IL 61801
> briandolinar at gmail.com
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