Plea Deal for Jena 6 Teen?
A 17-year-old who has been imprisoned for much of this year in a controversial Louisiana case that has sparked massive civil rights protests may be close to a plea deal.
Mychal Bell, who was originally charged with attempted murder in an alleged attack with five other black students about a year ago on a white high school classmate in a small town in central Louisiana, is now on the verge of pleading guilty to an unspecified misdemeanor in the “Jena 6” case, according to the Associated Press. Currently charged as a juvenile with aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy, Bell could enter a plea as early as today, says his lawyer, Carol Powell Lexing. He is scheduled to go to trial in the felony case on Thursday.
“We were prepared to go forward with the trial, but you have to do what’s best for the client,” says Lexing.
A call seeking comment was not returned Sunday by LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters.
Barely a blip on the criminal justice radar screen at the time of the attack—as an Alexandria, La., newspaper, the Town Talk, notes in a one-year-later roundup article—the case became hugely controversial. The problem, many felt, was that black high school students seemingly were punished harshly for racially tinged incidents while white students received relatively minimal discipline. The victim of the alleged attempted murder in Bell’s case spent several hours in the emergency room, but reportedly was well enough to attend a school event the night after the attack.
As detailed in previous ABAJournal.com posts, thousands marched on the town of Jena in September, protesting the way Bell and five other defendants charged in the attack were treated and some members of Congress have called for a Department of Justice investigation of the way the case was prosecuted. Meanwhile, although Bell is now to be tried as a juvenile (his earlier conviction in the case as an adult for second-degree aggravated battery was overturned on appeal), all trial proceedings in his case will nonetheless be open to the public, a judge recently decided.
Felony charges are pending against the other five Jena 6 defendants.
