Mychael Bell Takes Plea Deal In Jena 6 Case

4th December 2007

Mychael Bell Takes Plea Deal In Jena 6 Case

posted in News & Events, Racial Injustice | | EMail This Post | View blog reactions | Print This Post

Edited to add: Check the Afrosphere Jena 6 Coalition press release here.

I reported earlier today on The Jena 6 Blog that Bell was probably near a deal; now it seems official.

According to this CNN article the deal should have him out by June of ’09 – a far cry from the 100 plus years district attorney Reed Walters initially wanted, and even from the 22 years he wanted when he was forced by lack of a case to drop the conspiracy to commit murder; but still illegally prosecuted Bell as an adult.

Bell was convicted of felony aggravated battery by an all white jury containing members with alleged ties to the Judge and the DA, back in July. While waiting on sentencing, facing 22 years, the conviction was overturned by the 3rd circuit court of appeals because Bell was not eligible to be tried as an adult, but they ruled he could be retried as a juvenile.

After Judge Mauffrey, the same Judge who allowed Bell to be illegal tried in the first place, tried to deny Mychael Bell a release on bail for a week; he was then freed 13 days after the overturning of his conviction.

Then, in a surprise to all legal watchers of this case, Bell was put back in jail by yet the same judge for a parol voilation based on the same actions his conviction was overturned on. He was out for only 15 days on house arrest. He went to a routine hearing for his parol in relation to an earlier case than the Jena 6 incident, and Judge Mauffrey surprisingly revoked his parole and put him in jail for 18 months on October 11th.

I spoke with Alan Bean of Friends of Justice, this evening; the social advocacy organization for the falsely accused who pushed the Jena Six story into the public eye. He says from what he’s heard from direct contact with people in the court room, he was in Lafeyette today, not in Jena as I had thought; that the CNN reporting that Bell would be out by June sounds about right. He’s being told 6 - 8 months. I’ll have more of my interview with Mr. Bean in the next day or two either here or at The Jena 6 Blog

Having recieved conflicting reporting, I’m not sure if it is a misdemeanor deal for the 6 to 8 months, or a felony deal that is adding 6 to 8 months to the 9-plus he’s already served from the time he was arrested in December 2006; where he is getting credit for time already served.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 at 12:45 am and is filed under News & Events, Racial Injustice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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1 On December 4th, 2007, dsf said:

It is a misdemeanor deal for 18 months with credit for time served and to be served concurrently with his previous sentence. However, the deal continues. Bell had to admit in court that he knocked Barker unconscious, and he had to agree to testify at future hearings.

Purvis’s mother is reportedly furious about the deal, and she stated her son will not plead guilty to anything.

This is not over from any perspective. Arguably, this is just the beginning.

2 On December 4th, 2007, D. Yobachi Boswell said:

Hmmm, I doubt it can be a misdemeanor with an 18 month sentence, as it is my understanding that a misdemeanor has to be a year or less. I’m sure that’s the case in most states, if it’s not in Louisiana, that’s rare.

Tina Jones, that’s Bryant Purvis’ mom, should be pissed; because I think he has an excellent case that he wasn’t even in the fight.

I read in the article, which I linked to; that the plea involves him testifying against others; I wonder if he’s going to implicate all 5. I’m not with the b.s. don’t snitch campaign where you don’t tell on people commit crimes or who victimize you; but if you do something and you get caught, you don’t through other people under the bus. You take your shit and you leave the other folks situation alone.

But what’s most interesting here is, if Reed Walters actually believed they attempted to kill Justin Barker, how the hell could he possibly settle for 18 months? He tried to lock dude down for 100 years and then when that didn’t fly legally; 22 year. I thought he was so right that he thanked God. This proves he was full of it from day one. You don’t go from 100 years to 18 months if you were in the right.

And people say what did the march accomplish. The pressure is largely working. We’re not getting the full result that we wanted; but we’re getting a result closer to what we wanted than to what Reed Walters wanted; much closer than even the 22 years. We’re winning!

We will fight, and we will win!
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7253600219767288651

3 On December 4th, 2007, dsf said:

Reed Walters wasn’t looking to get anyone convicted of attempted murder; he was looking for a snitch. One with some knowledge of a certain arson of a particular school perhaps?

Re: the misdemeanor. AP has released a correction.

4 On December 4th, 2007, Dave Lucas said:

D - I’d like to get your comments on an article I’ve posted about the old storybook “Little Black Sambo.”

I read your blog from time to time and enjoy your work.

Dave Lucas

5 On December 5th, 2007, MrsGrapevine said:

I don’t see this as a good deal. I mean is it because of his priors, or did he just want to put the whole thing behind him? 18 months for a fight at school is still pretty harsh, along with a plea of guilty. I would think 6 months top, I know grown men who didn’t get such a sentence for assault. I guess the victim is white and that carries a mandatory excessive jail sentence.

6 On December 5th, 2007, D. Yobachi Boswell said:

There was no good deal Bell could possibly get out this situation as he had already done 10 months; but further because going forward in a trail presented significant risk. Even though ones priors are not admissible in court, everyone in the country already knows he has them, and their are lies going around about what he did to be convicted; lies which are pretty horrible; which if believed by jurors would likely skew their decision.

He already rolled the dice and was convicted once, escaped that because of an illegal prosecution; now he’s looking at 22 years if he gets convicted. 18 months is more than what he deserved for this incident, but considering he would have gotten that for parole violation alone anyway, 18 months is great compared to 22 years.

7 On December 8th, 2007, LennieG said:

No, this was no deal. He is told he must testify regarding his friends. He has to pay $900 to the racist creep who provoked him.

And he still has jail time. On top of that, the prosecutor has a victory after having walked into that school and threatened to ruin black lives with the stroke of his pen.

This makes me ill. Deal? Naw.

Lynn
hicktownpress

8 On January 8th, 2008, ja said:

Turn the situation around and if 6 whites kids attacked a black kid what would have been the outcome!! I,ll tell you what it would have been, screaming racism again and again!