Saturday, September 22, 2007

Judge Refuses Mychal Bell's Release

From the Baton Rouge Advocate:

JENA — A judge refused Friday to release Mychal Bell from jail the day after as many as 20,000 people poured into this small central Louisiana town to support Bell and five other black Jena High School students accused of the December beating of a white classmate.

Bell’s father, Marcus Jones, refused to speak to reporters after he walked out of LaSalle Parish Courthouse following the bond hearing that lasted more than two hours. But John Jenkins, the father of another one of the teens charged in the case, said Jones told him bond had been denied.

“His face was very tight. He was very upset,” Jenkins said of Jones’ demeanor when he left court.

Melissa Bell, Mychal Bell’s mother, walked out of the courthouse in tears and refused to comment on the hearing.

Attorneys representing Bell also refused to comment, saying the matter was in juvenile court, where proceedings are secret.


What next, I wonder. We don't know why bond was denied. No one can speak of what took place in the court room, because now Mychal Bell's case is in juvenile court.

I pray that mercy and justice prevail.

19 comments:

  1. Dear Grandmère, At least there has been some small victory in this with his conviction being overturned. As for his bail being denied, I have very mixed emotions about it. Part of me would like to shake some sense into this silly judge, but another part of me believes young Mr. Bell might be much safer in juvenile lock-up than on the mean streets of Jena where who knows what might happen to him. I had so hoped that this sort of thing was past us now, but it is always bubbling just beneath the surface, isn't it?
    The sad truth is, and many won't see it, or if they do they will not admit it--it is not peculiar to the south. I've encountered bigotry born of ignorance all over this country and I am sure that it is the same the world over.

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  2. Mychal Bell's case is in juvenile court.

    And we all know how well Louisiana takes care of its juvenile population...

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  3. Boocat,

    you have a higher opinion of small town Southern justice than I do, in thinking the lock-up is a safe place for a young male.

    How was the decision made as to which court had jurisdiction in the matter? This could be a bureaucratic foul-up at the worst possible moment imaginable, in which case it should be made transparent as it moves back to the open court AKA "adult"court Bell was convicted under, I presume.

    This court would be facing a federal order under the Kennedy or Johnson administrations; dare we ask whom the local authorities in Jena support, as far as U S attorney scandals go? And who, pray, might take action if we did so ask, as we keep doing? Why did we go backwards, and not forward, for so long, and so few spoke up, then ridiculed into silence?

    Lord, have mercy.

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  4. The juvenile justice system in Louisiana leaves much to be desired. I have no personal knowledge, but I have heard it said that it's worse than the adult system.

    He might get a lighter sentence being tried as a juvenile, but because of the secrecy laws, much can stay hidden.

    What might help Mychal is that the glare of the spotlight of "outside agitators" is on the system.

    Lord, have mercy.

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  5. i'm praying for a good outcome...that what boocat said is right. and grandmere, I hope what you said is right too, that the outside spotlight helps him, too.

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  6. I hope the spotlight keeps right on shining. That is his greatest hope, but I read that some idiot was arrested in the vicinity in his pick-up truck trailing three nooses from his tailgate and I think about that poor man who was dragged to death in Texas and wonder what would happen to Mychal Bell if he ever got caught alone on the streets of Jena.

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  7. I should have added to the end of the last post that Mychal has certainly been added to my Daily Office along with the others who now await trial.

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  8. Our society is so sick, and our systems so broken. Lord have mercy. Serena

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  9. Boocat, I wrote about the bigoted idiot with the nooses on his truck on my earlier post.

    Mychal and his family and the other five boys surely need our prayers.

    The folks in Jena need our prayers, too. I'm sure that not everyone is racist, but those who are need a change of heart.

    Hi Serena. Did you quit blogging?

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  10. Thanks, Mimi, for staying on this case. Sadly, we can't say this situation is beyond belief. Not in Louisiana, not in New York, not anywhere in our country.

    According to the NY Daily News, the appeals court has ordered a new bail hearing for Monday. The judge and the prosecutor both failed to show up for a bail hearing last Monday.

    I can only say, along with you: Lord have mercy.

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  11. Grandmère, I woke up this morning to the wonderful news on NPR that some racist websites are publishing the addresses of the Jena Six and their families. That was one of my worst fears realized.
    May God, and hopefully the State of Louisiana, protect these poor people from all of the crazy idiots who are out there with evil in their hearts.
    I am reminded of the advice of a recent Priest Associate in our parish who advised us to keep those who would do us harm off of our "silver platters of revenge" and on our "altars of prayer." Sometimes that is the most difficult advice to take. He said that if we, as Christians, cannot do that, how can we expect the circle of hate and revenge ever to be broken. So, I am praying this morning, not only for those young men in Jena and their families, but also that God will turn the hearts of those who would harm them.

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  12. Judge Mauffray's playing to the white voters of LaSalle parish, the only audience that counts where he's concerned - that and covering his own butt, since he presided at the trial that's just been overturned. Sounds as though the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal is not through with the case, however.

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  13. This is such a profound symbol of just how far our country has not come.

    It reminds me of a line from some book or movie - can't recall which one but the line goes something to the effect of "thousands of years of human experience and we still can't figure out how to get on."

    Mercy mercy mercy, Lord have mercy.

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  14. "it is not peculiar to the south."

    Just want to say "amen" to that. This distorted "justice" happens to people all over the country when, for whatever reason, the powers-that-be decide they are not entitled to the rule of law. Mychal Bell's case, with its clear connection to a racial system we hope we have left behind, presents this with a clarity that is unusual.

    But over in Dallas, there's a perfectly crazy "terrorism" trial about to end: a Muslim charity collected humanitarian aid that may, or may not, have ended up in the hands of Hamas, before Hamas was declared a "terrorist" outlaw and so leaders of it are being prosecuted. More here.

    We are going to be very ashamed of this era in our history.

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  15. some racist websites are publishing the addresses of the Jena Six and their families. That was one of my worst fears realized.

    Boocat, I'm sorry to hear that.

    According to the NY Daily News, the appeals court has ordered a new bail hearing for Monday. The judge and the prosecutor both failed to show up for a bail hearing last Monday.

    Allen, that's good news. Without the national spotlight on these cases, I'm afraid things would be a lot worse.

    I'm having flashbacks to the civil rights period.

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  16. I heard interviews on the radio this afternoon where lots of white people said that there wasn't a race problem in Jena. And I believe them. I don't think there is a race problem in Jena if you're white. Duh...

    Grandmere, is Mychael being held at the juvenile facility in Jena or is he in a County... sorry Parish cell? Just wondering.

    Lindy

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  17. is Mychael being held at the juvenile facility in Jena or is he in a County... sorry Parish cell?

    Lindy, I'm not sure, but I believe he was still in the adult jail, because the prosecutor was going to file an appeal to the decision to overthrow his conviction.

    However, I'm not certain. I'll try to check.

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  18. My reference to the small-town South and its judiciary in my earlier post was also in reference to my hometown, where I was a police officer in the Seventies. It's probably not much more than a hundred miles from Jena.

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  19. Johnieb, then you know what it's like.

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