The Justice Foundation

Unfinished Business

2012-01-26T20:45:00.005-06:00

What they hate the most, is that a Black Man can hold the office of President of the United States and yet, maintain the duties of the office better than most. Since when, has a US Government been able to fly in and pluck hostages out of the hands of "pirates" in Somalia. No Blackhawk down! Business just down. Albeit in an Africa Nation, yet done!

So, the threat; of we'll swoop in and get you in pervasive. All of a sudden Iran's President wants to talk.

We goin' back in to Jena. Why? Because, no one on the outside is aware of the fate of those left in Jena since 2007. There was no Martin Luther King March in Jena, this year. The group of blacks, who have gotten the MLK event together over the years, were talked into not doing it in 2012.

Some of the main local folks who were the voices and faces of the movement in Jena have succumbed to the pressures exacted because of 2007. We are asking all who were involved in the 2007 March to get ReJena'd. This three day event will still be about
Justice and Peace.

The ABSOLUTE Day of Infamy 9-21-11

2011-09-26T07:09:00.002-05:00

Absolute Infamy 9-21-11
I find it absolutely infamously apropro, Georgia decided on September 21st as the date to kill him. In September 2007, the very next day after "the march", The LaSalle Court's action had principals in the matter, scurrying from the scene, in tears, almost a blittering, idiot.

Well, we; somebody ought to get it now. Just because a man is not a Cop Killer, does not release you from "Killery". And it makes no difference, if the
"Killerer" is us: The State; whom we support with prayers as Christians, and taxes of the poor!! If you, really sick of CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, stop supporting the STATE. THE Supreme Court is the STATE!! Justice Thomas was pressed with presenting the Petition to the Court, an accused man himself.

The whole damned, country should revolt, and nobody pay no Taxes, and let the Bastard gone spin-off, into anarchy & Chaos. That's what the Neo-Cons want. The Bastards, who refuse to be chastised. Hurricanes, crashed economy, 9-11-01 - all that; and the Bastards, the illegitimate bastards deny God as the "actionary" bringing climate uncontrolled CHAOS.

Six months after the Supreme Court previously refused all attempts to stop the execution of Georgia inmate Troy Anthony Davis, his lawyers on Wednesday filed a new plea seeking to head off the state schedule to put him to death Wednesday evening. The brief filing, promising to send in “shortly” a new plea for Supreme Court review of his case, can be found here. The state swiftly replied, arguing against any delay. You, Me, Us and Them can check things Out!

Davis had been convicted of MacPhail's 1989 killing. Prosecutors said Davis was pistol-whipping a homeless man after asking him for a beer when MacPhail, who was working as a security guard at the time, rushed over to help. Authorities said Davis had a smirk on his face when he shot the officer in a Burger King parking lot in Savannah.

The State of the Black Way is exemplified in the speech The President made to the Congressional Black Caucus! It is the same CBC, of which a Congressman was in contact with one of the Attorney's for Mychal Bell on the last days of the young man's completely disrputed DAY OF COURT.

Peculiarly so, Sammy Franklin; the LaSalle Parish Sheriff's Daddy, wrote an article -
"Jumping Frogs" in 2008 before Barack Obama was the Nominee for the Democratic Presidency.
Editor Franklin wrote in '08

They now have the perfect candidate because they can squash criticism by playing the race card. If you don’t like Obama, or criticize him, you are a racist. They can hide his inexperience and background by turning him into a rock star and singing change and hope. They don’t tell us what kind of change, or how it will be done, only that you should hope for the best. By keeping the hype going they don’t have to put anything of substance on the table.

The only thing we really know about Obama is that his wife has never been proud to be an American. They want us to believe that his liberal college professors, Rev. Pfleger, his ties to radicals Bill Ayer and Lewis Farakon, and listening to the Rev. Wright’s hate talks for 20 years, had no influence on his thinking. If they didn’t, then who did? He wasn’t in business and didn’t see fit to serve his country. These people launched his political career and their organizations received earmarks in return for their campaign donations and political help. They must have had some influence. Rev. Wright’s church received over $15 million. That’s only one small local church. Think on a national scale.

He went on to say:

"The old sage’s (over 50) will have to play a big role in this election. The young people simply don’t know what the aged know. The advantage of aging is the knowledge you accumulated. You know what United States Means. You know what the seldom-heard word respect means. You know how wonderful freedom and independence is. You know the difference between a strong and a weak nation; and you know what it takes to keep it strong. You know history because you have lived it.

Although the old guard is dying off, and getting too tired to fight, they have to muster one more charge. If they don’t, our children, and grandchildren, will never know the joy and freedom that is the bedrock of our country. The heat is slowly being turned up and the water is getting hot. The old frogs better start jumping before it’s too late.”

Let this be a notice to all, before the Tpartiers there was the Oathkeepers

The "State" of the American Way-2010 A Return to the Dixiecratic Way

2010-11-03T12:33:00.004-05:00

The United States House of Representative takeover, by the Republican Party; fueled by the so-called TeaParty Express is being touted as the biggest take over, change, switch or reordering since 1948.

That is Nineteen-hundred & forty-eight in the year of Our Lord & Saviour.

In 1948, the Dixiecrat James O. Eastland was flexing his segregationist muscle, in Congress.

So, finally, we have a definitive qualification for where the ultra-conservative politicos; republican & democrat, tea-partiers and dixiecrats want to take us back to.

The Country they want to take us back to, is the country of James O. Eastland. Taking the country back is a return to the actions of slave plantation owners, who sought to deny Fannie
Lou Hamer the right to register to vote. It is that country, that they are trying to "take back".

The states-rightest have been waiting for this opportunity since the 1964-1965 Civil Rights legislation. And the Republicans are not finished. Boehner really cried, because of the satanic pact, made in 2009 to disrupt, distort and decimate the intended "policies of the Obama Administration."

Republican Judd Gregg was to be an early on appointee of the Obama Administration. However it was diverted through conservative wrangling, wresting him away from his former decision to accept the appointment.

Without doubt John Boehner, knows the efforts to defeat Obama are indeed race-based and "states-rights" based. He also knows, that if the rhetoric of the Tea Party Express, Sarah Pallin and others, will end in the destruction of the Nation.

It's not political gamesmanship anymore, or campaign politics. The continuing of the Democratic Republic is at stake.

As I listen to an assessment on Al Sharpton's - "Keeping It Real" , the Savannah, Georgia Rep for National Action Network, is talking about how "Red" Georgia has become in the aftermath of last night's elections.

We should all remember however, the Cherokee.

And how they were driven from Georgia in the 1800's. A PBS story about the "Trail of Tears" explains how Georgia pushed out aggressively the Indians of that day.

In the days of slavery in America, the Indians were required to assimilate in to the "american way", which was euro-caucasian.

The same is occurring now. Hispanics are being forced to drop there culture and assimilate.

The Immigration process to seperate families is "a return to plantation philosophy" for which america has never left.

Mocha Chocalata!:Curbside ViewsBBOP-Review::The BigSnitchola --Black Belt of Poverty Review-On the TightRope!

2010-07-04T00:01:00.005-05:00

In an earlier review it was said. 'So, sweet city of somber solace, seek to soothe your unsatisfied soul; as the souls of the sidewalk sepulchres scream bloody murder. You, who ritually deliver young souls into temptation, where will you disquise as you try to slide to a slow dirge, mimicking the pain that so many have lived with and do now sing and play and dance with. Yeah, it is true what that song say, "everybody want to sing my blues, nobody want to live my blues."
Speaking of the Crescent City then, and now as Louisiana experiences the latest "catastrophic occurrence" -OIL; the America we dreamed of is farther distancing itself from a final [r]evelation of what it might have become. "Meriknoir" [Black-America/Afro-America or Americans of African descent] is experiencing a morphing in which it does not have the luxury of belaboring the point.

While folks are trying to figure out if they are with the current POTUS, the opposition is taking us back to the 1870's. When you consider the current atmosphere in Louisiana - one black congressman from NOLA, the first since the end of Reconstruction; gone with the wind. And currently, a state senator in federal court, two city-councilmen yet to be arraigned federal court and four mayors under FBI investigation in La. Middle District US Atty Office. The New Roads "investigation" is ongoing and hot. The new US Atty for the middle district is a Pointe Coupee native. Recently, the Mayor of New Roads spoke out against the way the Victoria Gosserand case initiated. Gosserand is charged with crimes resulting in the death of 23 year old Terri Parker. An indictment of vehicular homicide was handed down. The "colonel" and his general will be doing all possible to put things in the proper perspective.

It is without doubt the "ruling class" is pushing to regain control of lost ground.
Factor in the attempt to dismantle the current White House Administration through an Article 5 Constitutional Convention emanating from New Orleans.

State Rep. Nick Lorusso, who represents Lakeview and portions of Mid-City, wants Congress to call a convention of state legislatures for the purpose of amending the U.S. Constitution.

A Republican attorney who was elected to the Louisiana Legislature in 2007, Lorusso cites Article V of the U.S. Constitution, which states that if 34 state legislatures apply for a convention to propose amendments to the Constitution, Congress is required to call one. NOLA Story.

Lorusso sponsored several resolutions in the recent Legislation session calling for the Article 5 Convention. Of Course, un-beknownst to the masses, other states with similar interest are prepared to become a part of the initiative. All the while WE, the people are trying to figure out if we support the brother!

Recently two segments of 'Meriknoir' thinkers & activist debated about the need for a Black Agenda. Then on April 20, 2010 an Oil Well blow out, blew-up and continues to contaminate. Black Agenda v. Code Noire ::-:: If there ever was any doubt about reparations, Farrakhan broke down in Atlanta June 26, 2010.

New Orleans is scheduled to host the first meeting of the World Deltas Dialogue in October 2010. How, appropriate. And who knew?

The facts of this blow-out will cause the ultimate debacle of commerce as we know it globally. The Government is not letting you know everything about the Gulf Oil Spill. Benzene in incredible amounts is being released into the air. People are getting sick. UN Vans by the thousands are parked in secluded areas out of sight from the public on AF Base in Florida just below Jacksonville. They are also in many other areas. Gassed to Death

That said, black folks everywhere are still figuring out what to make of this new era. New Day!?!
While all of this is going on, the judgment that is on the Land is exacerbated because there is no justice in the Land & the justice that is, is especially so unjust in Louisiana.

Each year the state legislature is steadily criminalizing [passing laws felonizing] more people.

Yet, the LAW [the lawman] kills citizens by lethal force & nothing happens, they are let off. Currently, in Winn Parish, Louisiana; Scott Nugent tortured Baron "Scooter" Pikes to death January 17, 2008. Several delays have occurred.

In Chicago torturer Jon Burge's recent conviction has sparked US Rep Danny Davis to sponsor a bill that would make police torture a crime against humanity. In another instance a 15 year old was beat by Houston police.

Gun violence, in 'Meriknoir' communities are prevalent in communities of all sizes. Towns of rural populations of less than 3,000 to metropolises are influenced by retaliative response, brought on by "a terror influenced society", hellbent on an eye for an eye.

Published: July 1, 2010
Updated: July 2, 2010 6:28 a.m.

Letters: Integration was necessary in our society

THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The letter "An unexpected casualty of affirmative action" [June 27] overlooks the fact that the affirmative-action initiative was not set forth to provide preference to nonwhites, but to integrate them into the workforce at a time when they were completely excluded from society.

I'll admit that in recent years the term has become grossly overused and has lost its original meaning. The integration of nonwhites into the workforce and the school systems (college acceptances, etc.) was, and still is, an extremely important factor in our society today. For too long "middle-age white men" were the predominant candidates for almost every job position, with the exception of those belittled and left for women (secretarial, educational, etc.).

On the other hand, just because someone who is applying for a certain position hears that a department is expected to "fill their open positions according to the affirmative-action plan" does not necessarily mean that he or she will pass up a perfectly qualified and exceptional candidate due to race. If that is the case, then the original ideals of the affirmative-action plan are being abused, twisted and made counterproductive.

No single person should be preferred based on race, whether or not they are black and are given preference due to affirmative action, or white and are being given preference due to racism. The suggestion that middle-age white men have been the targets of racial profiling (a gross overstatement, in my opinion) in recent years has some truth to it; but it has merely been the realization of their dominance in the workforce and society's attempts to create a more balanced platform for those of any race, gender, or religion. If a certain amount of "racial profiling" is necessary for creating an integrated society, then so be it.

Danielle Rico

Orange

August 26, 2010 The Week:End

hlr-from BBOP-'06

Since Black New Orleans and Poor New Orleans was held in this "depth of poverty" for the lucrative value of a readily available working class; and now an opportunity exists to capitalize further on another at the expense of the others, forced upon deprivations of the most recent last forty years of payback for even desiring to be free, let lone equal. How Declaration of Independence American Can New Orleans Ruling Class Be.

Gosserand pleads not guilty

By KORAN ADDO
Advocate Westside bureau
Published: Aug 26, 2010

Victoria Gosserand pleaded not guilty this morning in the Dec. 23 killing of one woman and the injuring of another in New Roads.

Gosserand, 24, was arraigned in a Pointe Coupee Parish courtroom today. A grand jury indicted her in February on one count each of vehicular homicide and first-degree negligent injuring.

Gosserand was behind the wheel in the Dec. 23 wreck that killed Terri Parker, 23, and sent Kyle Riviere, 23, to a hospital with serious injuries.

Assistant District Attorney Tony Clayton said the Ventress woman’s blood-alcohol content was 0.30, or nearly four times the 0.08 level at which a person is considered to be driving drunk, the night of the wreck.

New Roads Police Officer Brandon Spillman, who witnessed the wreck, testified in March shortly before his Louisiana National Guard unit deployed to Iraq.

Spillman said he was parked in a vacant lot while on duty around midnight at the intersection of False River Drive and Hospital Road when he witnessed Gosserand speed through a red light without attempting to stop or slow down.

The impact of the crash sent both Gosserand’s sport utility vehicle and Riviere’s Toyota Camry spinning through the intersection, Spillman said.

The officer said he saw a large object, which turned out to be Camry passenger Parker of New Roads, flying through the air. When Parker landed about 30 feet from the point of impact, Riviere’s car appeared to run over her body, Spillman said.

Spillman said he detected a strong odor of alcohol coming from an “aggressive and uncooperative” Gosserand. Later, at Pointe Coupee General Hospital, it took several hospital staffers, Spillman and Gosserand’s father to restrain the cursing and flailing woman, he said.

After Spillman’s testimony, defense attorney Rob Marionneaux told 18th Judicial District Judge Alvin Batiste that Gosserand was scheduled to enter a treatment program. He did not specify what kind of treatment Gosserand would be getting.

MOB RULE 2010:-Louisiana? What will you do when the Kingdom Comes

2010-04-07T11:49:00.003-05:00

In the years before the passage of the Civil Rights Act and before Brown v. Board of Education and Little Rock and New Orleans, and even since the onslaught of slavery; in America, it has been and still is MOB RULE. The chants of 2, 4, 6, 8 we don't want to integrate rang resoundingly on the CBS Evening News in the 60's. The Jeering, then. The mobs of white folk, on the attack. Sometimes, as the police; more often than not. At other, times just mobs of white citizens. Bloody Sunday is an example of the 'mob rule' bludgeoning by law enforcement.

Now in this twenty-first century, the hollering white folks are back. As if, given a signal to "move out." Some are too young to "Know", it is a mindset of 'supremacist whites' that a negro can never actually run or 'administrate' any thing successfully. So that, it was a knee jerk reaction, to cause to think the current president could not function properly, innately. It would be beyond their reasoning to think such, for the majority.

In 1957, the mob ruled until federal troops were sent to Little Rock. In 1960 Ruby Bridges integrated as a first; the public schools in New Orleans. MOB RULED, until federal marshals were sent. And still, the shouts and jeers. The mobs.

Now, in 2010. Since the election of President Barack Obama, the mobs have ensued again. In 2007, a mass-march was held in Louisiana in the town of Jena. After the march, the father of the then sheriff-elect, wrote an article in the "family newspaper", the only paper in the town. In essence, the article said; it was time to get as busy as the civil rights activist were. The article was about "jumping frogs". The article entitled 'Old Frogs better start jumping,' was eyed by every concerned conservative in the nation. At that time, the town was ground zero.
The final statement in the article, went as such:

"Although the old guard is dying off, and getting too tired to fight, they have to muster one more charge. If they don’t, our children, and grandchildren, will never know the joy and freedom that is the bedrock of our country. The heat is slowly being turned up and the water is getting hot. The old frogs better start jumping before it’s too late."

Obama wasn't nominated or elected when the article was written. A COGIC Church was burned in Massachusetts the night Obama was elected. Yet, there is a responsive resolution to this activity.

Before Coretta King died she said it was up to the people to bring the 'right' people to justice for the murder of her husband. The information was all in the Trial Transcript. Tavis Smiley, Bill Moyers, and a Civil Rights History timeline, is occurring in recognition of April 4, 1968. It is seemingly strange, that somehow this year's Resurrection day is also the day Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated.

White Supremacist hoped Obama's win would bring a backlash. It Did. Some, are now trying to force it to be said, "it ain't so", but it is. And where will it all end. Louisiana's Legislature is attempting to force a US Constitution Article 5 - Constitutional Convention for the purposes of Amending the Constitution. Evidently the states whose Attorney's General, have filed suit because of the "HealthCare" Bill, were testing for the right number of states for the Article 5 amending, or to further insight someone to do, what they won't. It is no doubt we are On the Brink of a "wind change".

Will it be the same wind, that blew in 1963 in Dealey Plaza. Is that the coded message, the young woman was referring to the other day? After all, President Obama is definitely, not being judged by the content of his character. Besides, anyway, the Nationalist said in Jena in 2008, 'No King over Us'.

Some have mistakenly believed, that Obama's presidency was the culmination of Dr. King's dream. The presidency is just another cog in the wheel of justice. There is still much work to be done. Much WORK!! The "schisms and 'isms" are still prevalent.
The poor are still with us. And, the big dander is all up about, paying more for somebody else to receive. But wait, that sounds kinda judeo-christian, the ideals America was supposedly founded upon.

Help us, Lord Jesus. We are adrift in a stormy sea.

LouisianaWhat will you do When the Kingdom Comes!?

2010-02-11T21:34:00.015-06:00

mid April--MOB RULE 2010
Louisiana ON THE BRINK of your complete implosion!! 2 April 2010

Rage Raids by FBI in Midwest 28 March 2010

I really hated to change the previous post's position. I have kept it as the last post, because it exemplified the status of louisiana justice.
However, the standard is breeched at will, by the "powers at be", not the "powers that be". At least, in its day, the infamous powers that be knew when to quit.

But this and this, absolutely take the cake. How on God's green earth does this continue in our life time. Baron "Scooter" Pikes was murdered, the weekend of MLK Day in Winnfield, Louisiana in 2008. That year, the klan; in the form of CrossStar, conducted a counter demonstration in Jena, Louisiana. Their march motto said no KING [referring to Dr. King]-over us. There was also a "counter" counter-demonstration, that day in 2008; if you will. Blacks & Whites against the klanish-types. Now, the Winn Parish Judicial structure is in effect, preparing to set Officer Scott Nugent & others free.
I have learned his -[Pikes]- grandmother died only recently in January 2010, never to see the justice done.

Not only that, but her burial was a struggle also. This article tells a story of a video alledged to be in existence that shows Pikes plight during the time of his arrest, torture & murderous death. I tell you, the government in louisiana is preparing to set Nugent free!

[ Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as one of your own country: for I am the Lord your God. ] -Leviticus 24:22

The same sort of "banana republic justice" is being meted out in Homer, Louisiana in the Claiborne Parish Judicial Process. After the case being placed in the Louisiana Attorney General's hands a "grand jury" decided not to indict officers, who quit their jobs and moved in 2009. The events surrounding the Bernard Monroe case is strange to say the least. But, for the AG to take the case, that fact; meaning something is amiss, especially so after federal involvement, a state police investigation; and no one is charged with nothing! No malfeasance, no negligent homicide, no nothing!: it's just fine to shoot & kill old men in their yards. Such gestapoism!

Grand Jury Refuses to Indict White Cop Who Killed Black Man

Friday, February 05, 2010 -Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS — The case of an elderly black man who was shot to death by a white police officer in the north Louisiana town of Homer will not go to trial.

A grand jury, handled by the state attorney general's office instead of the local district attorney, returned a "no true bill" on Thursday — refusing to indict former police officer Tim Cox.

The grand jury considered and rejected charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide.

Bernard Monroe, 73, was shot outside his home by one of two white Homer police officers who had been chasing Monroe's son last Feb. 20.

Police said Monroe was armed. Witnesses dispute that.

The officers have since resigned.

******************************

No charge for La. police officer in shooting death

By MARY FOSTER (AP) – Feb 4, 2010

NEW ORLEANS — A grand jury on Thursday declined to indict a white police officer who shot an elderly black man in the small Louisiana town of Homer in a case that heightened racial tension and sparked protests.

The panel returned a "no true bill," meaning the case won't go to trial, after considering and rejecting a range of charges including murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide against former police officer Tim Cox.

Many in the rural town of 3,800 were outraged by the shooting last February of Bernard Monroe, a 73-year-old left voiceless by cancer. Police said Monroe was armed when he was shot outside his home, but witnesses said he didn't have a weapon.

The grand jury heard testimony from 20 witnesses over two days, said Kurt Wall, director of the criminal division of the state attorney general's office. The attorney general handled the case after the local prosecutor recused himself.

"We believe it was a full, complete, accurate and thorough presentation conducted at a neutral site. We respect the grand jury's decision," Wall said.

An FBI spokeswoman said the bureau is continuing to investigate the case.

The leader of the local chapter of the NAACP was angered by the decision not to charge Cox.

"I am so disappointed," said the Rev. Willie Young Sr. "When you have 12 witnesses that say the man did not have a gun and he was gunned down by police, what are you supposed to believe. We are left with the belief that police in Homer have a license to kill."

Monroe was shot by Cox last Feb. 20 after Cox and another Homer police officer chased Monroe's son through the house and shocked the younger man with a stun gun in the yard, authorities said. Louisiana State Police, which investigated the shooting, have said Cox shot Bernard Monroe several times.

Monroe, who had recently left a hospice after recovering from cancer that left him voiceless, was outside his home with about a dozen family members for a cookout when the shooting occurred.

Cox and the other officer, Joey Henry, have since resigned.

Monroe's death heightened racial tensions in the town about 50 miles northeast of Shreveport. The Rev. Al Sharpton led about 150 people in a peaceful protest march in April.

Homer Police Chief Russell Mills said Thursday night that because of the civil litigation expected to come in the case, the city attorney had advised him not to comment.

"I wish I could," Mills said. "And someday I will."

After Thursday's decision, Police Chief Russell Mills did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Claiborne Parish District Attorney Johnathan Stewart turned the case over to Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell in December 2009, saying he wanted to avoid any appearance of favoritism or conflict of interest. His office is handling other criminal cases in which Cox and Henry are witnesses, and an assistant district attorney also serves as the town attorney for Homer.

Accident-Thurs Mar 11, 2010

Catahoula man dies from wreck injuries

By Vershal Hogan (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Tuesday, March 16, 2010

ALEXANDRIA — The son of Judge Kathy Johnson died Sunday morning of injuries he sustained in an accident last week.

Jarrett Barton, 27, died Sunday at the Rapides Regional Medical Center three days after a head-on collision with an 18-wheeler on Louisiana 28.

Barton’s 1992 Ford pickup apparently drifted across the center line and collided with an oncoming 1996 Peterbilt, according to a news release from the Louisiana State Police.

Barton is also the son of Thomas Barton of Jena, La.

His funeral will be 2 p.m. today at First Baptist Church in Jonesville.

Jarrett Davis Barton, Jonesville

1982 - 2010

JONESVILLE — Services for Jarrett Davis Barton, 27, of Jonesville, who died Sunday, March 14, 2010, at Rapides Regional Medical Center in Alexandria, La., will be at 2 p.m. today at First Baptist Church of Jonesville with the Rev. Melodie Long, the Rev. Perry Gardner and the Rev. Mack Walker officiating.

Burial will follow at Jena Cemetery under the direction of Young’s Funeral Home in Jonesville.

Mr. Barton was born Aug. 25, 1982, in Alexandria, the son of Thomas D. Barton and Judge Kathy Johnson. He was a member of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Jonesville.

He was preceded in death by his maternal grandparents, Davis and Ruby Johnson; and paternal grandparents, Thomas and Mary Barton.

Survivors include one son, Carson Davis Barton; his mother, both of Jonesville; his father and wife, Candy, of Jena, La.; one sister, Lauren Lee Barton of Jonesville; his fiancée, Mandy Ewing of Jonesville; three stepsisters, April Mixon of Crowley, La., Amanda Bond of Jena, La. and Haley Poole of West Monroe, La.; three uncles, Gary Don Barton and wife, Dannie Sue, Danny Joe Barton and wife, Wanda, all of Gilbert, La., and Aaron Johnson and wife, Gayle, of Jena; and a number of cousins and friends.

Pallbearers will be Josh Book, Dusty Edwards, Justin Bass, Cody Turnage, Drew Nichols, Jordan Johnson, Jeremy Johnson and Travis Barton.

Honorary pallbearers will be Kyle Neal, Roy King, Dusty Taylor, Cliff Wilson, Wes Edwards, Nathan Trisler, Ben Breithaupt, Toby Wilson, Eddie Nichols, John Ross and John Nichols.

Donations may be made to Trinity Presbyterian Church or Grace Baptist Church, both of Jonesville.

Online condolences may be sent to www.youngsfh.com.

"Egregious Prosecution"-Wrongful Convictions!! | Beware: Open Season II

2009-12-10T15:29:00.017-06:00

It appears we're headed for a watershed moment in american jurisprudence. Finally, a definitive deep-south statement on wrongful convictions-'EGREGIOUS',says Emily Maw of the Innocence Project of New Orleans. Definitive? Yes! Take the exculpatory evidence in the case of Michael Jarvis Cobb; the evidence was "lawyered" into the minds of the jurors.
Balko Reform Alliance? SCOTUS-9dec09 Hinds County District Attorney Ed Peters and his then-assistant district attorney, Bobby DeLaughter, excluded DNA evidence in 1994hlr

"For this reason I find the Willis case particularly egregious—and we don’t normally say that about our cases.” -Emily Maw IPNO

Cedric Willis says he is happy that the state of Mississippi agreed to pay him compensation for wrongfully convicting him for the shooting death of Carl White in 1994, even though $500,000 doesn’t quite seem to cover it.

The Innocence Project, a national non-profit group, works to overturn wrongful convictions, largely through post-conviction DNA testing. The organization helped overturn Willis’ conviction in 2006. Innocence Project New Orleans Director Emily Maw, who led that effort said she applauded the restitution, but warned the state that restitution does not fix a broken justice system.

“We commend legislators who agreed to pass the law allowing people to be compensated and the attorney general who agreed that they should be compensated, but it does not absolve the state of Mississippi or its legal profession from reflecting upon how an innocent man was effectively framed by police and tried by prosecutors,” Maw said.

Maw pointed out that the Willis case was particularly insidious in that the wrongful prosecution was completely voluntary on the part of prosecutors, as opposed to accidental.

“The case of Arthur Johnson was a mistake in witness identification, pure and simple. But in Willis’ case, two entities knew it was the wrong guy and went ahead and prosecuted him,” she said. “In this case nobody has taken responsibility for their actions, and nobody has called upon responsible people to take responsibility for their actions. For this reason I find the Willis case particularly egregious—and we don’t normally say that about our cases.”

Maw added that she did not believe that the potential loss of compensation expenditures by the state would, by itself, discourage laziness in the courtroom: “No, they won’t be more careful. They waste money every day,” she said. “There is an absurd amount of wasted money in the criminal justice system, from poor scheduling, bad use of time and wasted resources in the prison system with the state’s incarceration policy. Unless the money is clearly coming right out of (criminal justice employees’) pockets, the court system won’t give a damn.”. ..from Jackson Free Press

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

January 29, 2009 FULL VIDEO

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Left, Right, Left:Open Season | Be Aware!

2009-09-04T21:00:00.018-05:00

Oct-Nov09 Heather | Memphis SCLC | Altgeld Gardens-Chicago | Detroit | Georgia | Derrion Albert | Richmond High
Just in case you're not getting it! Missouri Show-down? | "Line Cutter" March | Kennet
The Left as they call it - means you're a communist! Revolution means you're against the "american way."
7September09
I want you to know one thing about "gestapo-ism,"- it is controlling every & any thing you say or do. If you don't tow the "establishment correctness" you're out! Done! POTUS-Advisor quits,cites "lies & distortions"

Outcry of Justice | Christina Swarns-NaacpLDF | IP Summer'09 | dna.gov
^ Texas exoneree: "a nightmare," ''hell" and "slavery". New Texas law awards wrongly convicted.

Freedom Highway '65

A modern day Range War? America is re-visiting its inner self. No one should be caught off guard, however. Especially, those whose lives were ramshackled in late '63.

And after the bastards have accomplished their dastardly deed, they'll plead their innocence. The steady ramping-up of rhetoric has an end, and a purpose.

Guns, TNT & a rocket launcher were found in suburban Chicago. A so-called, "anarchist cookbook" was found, a father & son were arrested. It's about to get rough folks.
Home, home on the range still has to deal with criminal justice, immigration & poverty.

Only a Pawn in their Game
090909-Address to Congress

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Another Joe!?! An obvious
scoundrel
in an agreed
upon upheavel, a definite reminder of the former days. The "radicalization of amerika" the last.Racism in the Chamber!?!

Wilson turned a deaf ear to pleas from his party's leaders to apologize on the House floor Thursday, telling reporters his call to the White House had been sufficient and that his comments were "spontaneous" and the result of being overcome with emotion. Democratic leaders, though stunned, said they were not inclined to pursue an official sanction against Wilson

Sorry Folks: It's Just not the Same

2009-05-30T18:30:00.008-05:00

Jan 20, 2009 "Reflecting Pool Freezes Over"

After some "forced fed" research last week, it has become evident that "equating the move of 16th century slave-chattel to 19th century 'emancipation' to 20th century negro 'freedom' marches and the subsequent advances; with current marriage activism as the same or similar; is not consistent with the facts of the 'then' and the 'now'.

"Now" with a downplayed event to occur in Jackson, Ms., & Lambert, Ms., spearheaded by Antoinette Harrell & 20th Century Slavery, as a fact is brought to bare in Harrell's Poverty Tour.

Her "movement" is long overdue. However, on one specific episode, what was seen in "the evolution of Dr. King's 'Poor People's Campaign' is juxtaposed" against current conditions.

The idea of 20th Century Slavery is appalling. But, the fear placed on individuals cannot be equated with the "voluntary acceptance of a lifestyle" which devolves to "teen & adolescent" bondage.

"Many of the countless missing boys & girls are in bondage in America in 2009, by the purveyors of images of youth in explicit depictions of bondage."

It should be noted, we are in the 21st Century! "Some years ago, at one of her many speaking engagements on the importance of tracking family history (even the painful parts), Antoinette Harrell was approached by Mae Louise Wall Miller, who told her that she was raised in what amounted to slavery and only escaped in 1963. That's right. Not 1863, but 1963.
Miller's family lived in a remote setting in Mississippi, far from cities or even roads, not being able to read or write and completely cut off from outsiders. The story Miller tells is harrowing and, as she told it at the premiere, you could have heard a pin drop in the auditorium.
Miller talked about how they were treated worse than dogs. How they all spent their every waking moment "picking cotton, pulling corn, picking peas, picking butter beans, picking string beans, digging potatoes; whatever it was, that's what you did for no money at all." How the "Boss's" table scraps were tossed into a tub for days and then set out under a tree for them to eat out of like hogs." It is evident a great amount of effort was employed to subject folks in that time, "then".

But right at this prevalent time, this enigma approaches us from the woodworks of yesterday, to give us the incompleteness of efforts to distance ourselves from the past. Plagued with Latina & Black issues of Justice & Economics, subprime schemes & Bankrupt automakers plus who can or cannot marry.

"Now" some want to equate "today's" watershed issue with "then".

"So, Pettus Bridge was about really exposing a system of southern mistreatment of negroes at the hands of others. All along the Delta's plantations, poor blacks were "forcibly" held in a neuvo captivity."

The political means of Hamer, Evers & countless others in Mississippi, the Congress of Racial Equality in Baton Rouge in 1961, the Montgomery Bus Boycott & the many unsung-ed "rights" events; still kept the depraved conditions forced upon negroes, hid.

Still, in Selma the backlash of deprivation is evident when you take a closer look. All along "freedom's trail", the stench of backlash from Detroit to Denham Springs remains. The change then was to end "enslavement". The issues of inequality are starkly different. No one is attempting to keep any "so-called consenting adults" trapped in poverty, beginning with forced slavery and continued to this day through institutionalized mechanisms of devaluation.

When I now see, the well known of the "consented lifestyle", the culminating finality of insobriety the defiant deviance brings about is self-inflicted. No slave, thought upon himself to become one.
This defiant deviance further emboldens others, to deeper depths. Thusly, our children are trapped in a "new-age slavery", a slavery of its own making. This is not the slavery, forced upon others by the Code Noir.
Recently, photos were released of Rihanna. Proportedly nude. We were already aware of the leather. It is a consented lifestyle.

But, there are others, who are forcibly held captive in this lifestyle. Their faces are on milkboxes. Their parents are told they are runaways. Adults pay to see them on the internet.

Sorry Folks, It's Just not the Same!!

Prevailing Justice?!

2009-03-04T02:21:00.007-06:00

Jan 20 2009 "Reflecting Pool Freezes Over"

Legislation speaks to persistent racial and ethnic disparities within the federal criminal justice system.

originally published 2-26-09 Brennan Center for Justice

Washington, D.C. – Today, Senators Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) and Arlen Spector (R-PA) introduced critical legislation that speaks to persistent racial and ethnic disparities within the federal criminal justice system. Inspired in part by a 2007 Brennan Center and the National Institute for Law and Equity report, the Justice Integrity Act (JIA) of 2008 seeks to ensure equal treatment for all citizens involved in the criminal process.

Originally introduced by then-Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE), the JIA is intended to restore public confidence in the fair and equitable application of justice. The proposed legislation grew, in part, out of a report released by the Brennan Center and the National Institute for Law and Equity, Prosecutorial Discretion and Racial Disparities in Federal Sentencing: Some Views of Former U.S. Attorneys, which identified ways for U.S. Attorneys' to address racial disparities in sentencing and to mitigate the effects on communities that are disproportionately impacted by high rates of incarceration.

"The Justice Integrity Act provides a non-partisan, objective mechanism through which law enforcement officials can take a close look at whether we are achieving the goal of ensuring fair and equal treatment for all citizens that find themselves involved with our criminal justice system—which is the promise of our democracy," says Nicole Austin-Hillery, Director and Counsel of the Brennan Center's Washington, D.C. office.

The JIA would create a pilot program that would be implemented by United States Attorneys in ten federal districts, who with the assistance of "advisory committees" comprised of prosecutors and defenders, judges and correctional officers, among others, would be charged with the responsibility to collect and examine data illuminating racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice policies within the selected districts. The advisory committees would also study ways to reduce unwarranted disparities and make recommendations as to how to ensure fairness in the criminal justice system.

Recognizing that African Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately arrested and incarcerated across a range of offenses, Melanca Clark, counsel in the Brennan Center's Justice Program, stated: "We've become desensitized to the over-involvement of black and brown men in the criminal justice system, and the related human cost to individuals, families and communities. The JIA is a critical step towards real, color-blind, Justice."

The advisory committees will offer recommendations to inform the creation of plans that will help ensure that law enforcement priorities and initiatives, charging and plea bargaining decisions, and sentencing recommendations are not influenced by racial or ethnic stereotyping, and that facially neutral laws or policies are applied without actual or unconscious bias.

For more information or to arrange an interview with Nicole Austin-Hillery or Melanca Clark, please contact Jeanine Plant-Chirlin at 212-998-6289 or at Jeanine.plant-chirlin@nyu.edu.

Critical legislation introduced!

Prosecutorial Discretion and Racial Disparities in Federal Sentencing.

.

Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law | 161 Avenue of the Americas, 12th Floor | New York, NY 10013
212.998.6730 phone | 212.995.4550 fax | brennancenter@nyu.edu

Washington, D.C. office | 1730 M Street, NW, Suite 413 | Washington, D.C. 20036
202.785.4747 phone | 202.785.4744 fax | brennancenter@nyu.edu

America: In the Final Throes - Legacy's future holt!

2008-12-31T23:24:00.007-06:00

New Rules of Engagement. World wide! The individual signifies the shift in the rules of engagement. The Zeitgeist. Ready or Not!

Disembarking from the painful past of yesterday, will not be an easy task. As so many are basking in the signal of a "new day". The struggle of yesterday implodes in our midst.

Attempts will be made to deploy old tactics of a now defunct time. Too force the hand of today, back in to yesterday. Tensions come and go. How it is handled is what counts.

Like it or not, we're here now! And there's no turning back! hlr

Rode it Out!!!

2008-06-03T17:10:00.002-05:00

minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois sealed the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, a historic step toward his once-improbable goal of becoming the nation's first black president. A defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton maneuvered for the vice presidential spot on his fall ticket.

Obama's victory set up a five-month campaign with Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a race between a 46-year-old opponent of the Iraq War and a 71-year-old former Vietnam prisoner of war and staunch supporter of the current U.S. military mission.

Obama, a first-term Illinois senator who was virtually unknown on the national stage four years ago, defeated Clinton, the former first lady and one-time campaign front-runner, in a 17-month marathon for the Democratic nomination.

His victory had been widely assumed for weeks. But Clinton's declaration of interest in becoming his ticketmate was wholly unexpected.

She expressed it in a conference call with her state's congressional delegation after Rep. Nydia Velazquez, predicted Obama would have great difficulty winning the support of Hispanics and other voting blocs unless the former first lady was on the ticket.

"I am open to it" if it would help the party's prospects in November, Clinton replied, according to a participant who spoke on condition of anonymity because the call was private.

Obama's campaign had no reaction to Clinton's comments, which raised anew the prospect of what many Democrats have called a "Dream Ticket" that would put a black man and a woman on the same ballot.

The fast-paced developments unfolded as the long Democratic nominating struggle ended with primaries in Montana and South Dakota.

Only 31 delegates were at stake, the final few among the thousands that once drew Obama, Clinton and six other Democratic candidates into the campaign to replace President Bush and become the nation's 44th president.

Obama arranged an evening appearance in St. Paul, Minn., sending McCain an unmistakable message by claiming his victory in the very hall where the Arizonan will accept his party's nomination in early September.

Clinton was in New York for an appearance before home-state supporters. Officials said she would concede Obama had the delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, effectively ending her bid to be the nation's first female president.

McCain, who wrapped up the Republican nomination months ago, campaigned in Memphis.

Obama sealed his nomination based on primary elections, state Democratic caucuses and delegates' public declarations as well as support from 22 delegates and "superdelegates" who privately confirmed their intentions to The Associated Press. It takes 2,118 delegates to clinch the nomination at the convention in Denver this summer.

The young senator's success amounted to a victory of hope over experience, earned across an enervating 56 primaries and caucuses that tested the political skills and human endurance of all involved.

Obama stood for hope, and change. Clinton was the candidate of experience, ready, she said, to serve in the Oval Office from Day One.

Together, they drew record turnouts in primary after primary — more than 34 million voters in all, independents and Republicans as well as Democrats.

Yet the race between a black man and a woman exposed deep racial and gender divisions within the party.

Obama drew strength from blacks, and from the younger, more liberal and wealthier voters in many states. Clinton was preferred by older, more downscale voters, and women, of course.

Obama's triumph was fashioned on prodigious fundraising, meticulous organizing and his theme of change aimed at an electorate opposed to the Iraq war and worried about the economy — all harnessed to his own gifts as an inspirational speaker.

With her husband's two White House terms as a backdrop, Clinton campaigned for months as the candidate of experience, a former first lady and second-term senator ready to be commander in chief.

But after a year on the campaign trail, Obama won the kickoff Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, and the freshman senator became a political phenomenon.

"We came together as Democrats, as Republicans and independents, to stand up and say we are one nation, we are one people and our time for change has come," he said that night of victory in Des Moines.

As the strongest female presidential candidate in history, Clinton drew large, enthusiastic audiences. Yet Obama's were bigger. One audience, in Dallas, famously cheered when he blew his nose on stage; a crowd of 75,000 turned out in Portland, Ore., the weekend before the state's May 20 primary.

The former first lady countered Obama's Iowa victory with an upset five days later in New Hampshire that set the stage for a campaign marathon as competitive as any in the past generation.

"Over the last week I listened to you, and in the process I found my own voice," she told supporters who had saved her candidacy from an early demise.

In defeat, Obama's aides concluded they had committed a cardinal sin of New Hampshire politics, forsaking small, intimate events in favor of speeches to large audiences inviting them to ratify Iowa's choice.

It was not a mistake they made again — which helped explain Obama's later outings to bowling alleys, backyard basketball courts and American Legion halls in the heartland.

Clinton conceded nothing, memorably knocking back a shot of Crown Royal whiskey at a bar in Indiana, recalling that her grandfather had taught her to use a shotgun, and driving in a pickup to a gas station in South Bend, Ind., to emphasize her support for a summertime suspension of the federal gasoline tax.

As other rivals fell away in winter, Obama and Clinton traded victories on Super Tuesday, the Feb. 5 series of primaries and caucuses across 21 states and American Samoa that once seemed likely to settle the nomination.

But Clinton had a problem that Obama exploited, and he scored a coup she could not answer.

Pressed for cash, the former first lady ran noncompetitive campaigns in several Super Tuesday caucus states, allowing her rival to run up his delegate totals.

At the same time, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., endorsed the young senator in terms that summoned memories of his slain brothers while seeking to turn the page on the Clinton era.

Merely by surviving Super Tuesday, Obama exceeded expectations. But he did more than survive, emerging with a lead in delegates that he never relinquished, and he proceeded to run off a string of 11 straight victories.

Clinton saved her candidacy once more with primary victories in Ohio and Texas on March 4, beginning a stretch in which she won in six of the next nine states on the calendar, as well as in Puerto Rico.

It was a strong run, providing glimpses of what might have been for the one-time front-runner.

Personality issues rose and receded through the campaign:

Clinton's husband, the former president, campaigned tirelessly for her but sometimes became an issue himself, to her detriment.

And Obama struggled to minimize the damage caused by the incendiary rhetoric of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, an issue likely to be raised anew by Republicans in the fall campaign.

Ride it Out!!

2008-03-10T15:27:00.012-05:00

Obama Riding IT out!!

2 April 2008
- Bryant Purvis prelim May 6, 2008, Theodore McCoy & Marcus Jones forced to pay child support for "incarcerated sons." Melissa Bell in Judge J P Mauffray's
Court May 5, to be forced to pay child support.

Obama ridicules notion of VP slot

3/10/2008, 2:37 p.m. CDTBy CHARLES BABINGTON The Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Miss. (AP) — Democrat Barack Obama ridiculed the idea of being Hillary Rodham Clinton's running mate Monday, saying voters must choose between the two for the top spot on the fall ticket.

The Illinois senator used his first public appearance of the week to knock down the notion that he might accept the party's vice presidential nomination. He noted that he has won more states, votes and delegates than Clinton so far. [It Happened in Memphis]

"I don't know how somebody who is in second place is offering the vice presidency to the person who is first place," Obama said, drawing cheers and a long standing ovation from about 1,700 people in Columbus, Miss.

Saying he wanted to be "absolutely clear," he added: "I don't want anybody here thinking that somehow, 'Well, you know, maybe I can get both.' Don't think that way. You have to make a choice in this election."

"I am not running for vice president," Obama said. "I am running for president of the United States of America."

Obama aides said Clinton's recent hints that she might welcome him as her vice presidential candidate appeared meant to diminish him and to attract undecided voters in the remaining primary states by suggesting they can have a "dream ticket."

Obama had never suggested he might accept a second spot on the ticket. But until Monday he had not ridiculed the notion so directly, even if he did completely rule it out in Shermanesque terms.

He told the audience that it made no sense for Clinton to suggest he is not ready to be president and then hint that she might hand him the job that could make him president at a moment's notice. Keepers of the DREAM! Or has this been a nightmare?

"If I'm not ready, how is it that you think I should be such a great vice president?" he said, as the crowd laughed and cheered loudly.

Mississippi holds it primary Tuesday, the last contest before the Pennsylvania primary six weeks from now.

Clinton and her husband, the former president, had suggested recently that a Clinton-Obama ticket would be popular and formidable against Republican Sen. John McCain in November.

Many political activists discounted the notion all along. They noted that the two senators lack a warm relationship and, more important, that Obama would be ill-served by hinting he might accept the vice presidential slot when he holds the lead in delegates and hopes to win the presidential nomination.

In the latest Associated Press count, Obama leads Clinton, 1,578-1,472. He has won 28 contests to her 17.
Moreover, many insiders feel the ambitious and fast-rising Obama would chafe in the vice president's job, especially in a White House where Bill Clinton would almost surely play a huge advisory role.

Still, the notion of a Clinton-Obama ticket has received ample discussion in recent days on cable TV news shows and newspapers such as New York City's tabloids.

In an interview Friday in Wyoming with KTVQ-TV, a CBS affiliate based in Billings, Mont., Obama's comments were somewhat mixed.

"Well, you know, I think it's premature," he said of accepting the second spot on the ticket. "You won't see me as a vice presidential candidate."

His Monday remarks were more detailed, pointed and humorous.

Of course, they will not completely end the speculation. Presidential candidates routinely disavow any interest in the vice presidential spot. But some, including John Edwards and Al Gore, change their minds when they fall short of their top goal. Keepers of the DREAM! Or What?!!2 April 2008

Is This the New World Order in Formation?!!

2008-01-19T08:16:00.001-06:00

Bayou Chicot Noose's 13 May 2008
Near Ville Platte, Louisiana

This is the New World Order's North American Union, from the outset the sham-trickery of the Skull & Crossbones crew. For which your illustrious leaders of this Democratic Republic called America are ALL a part of, including the candidates of note for 2008, bar none excepting Barack Obama.

This is why Bill Clinton could remark his true confessive thoughts of Barack's campaign as a fairy tale. A neverwill happen. A moot point. Because the good old boys of the Dark Society of the Skull & Crossbones discriminates.

How blessed can we get, with Barack.!

OverStepping the Bounds:Of Justice?-Mauffray & Walters

2007-12-08T03:00:00.001-06:00

Judge in Jena 6 case again closes records, will appeal order that opened Mychal Bell hearing

By MARY FOSTER , Associated Press
Last update: December 7, 2007 - 11:48 PM

A week after one of the so-called Jena Six defendants pleaded guilty to second-degree battery in the beating of a white schoolmate, the judge in the case said the records will remain closed, pending an appeal.

Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr. will appeal to the state 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal an order that opened the hearing and records in Mychal Bell's case.

"In the interim, we have advised the clerk and his staff that the judgment is not yet final, and that they should not permit access to the record in the two Mychal Bell proceedings, nor any other juvenile proceeding," Donald R. Wilson, Mauffray's attorney, wrote on Thursday.

State District Judge Thomas Yeager's order to open all proceedings and records concerning Bell is not yet final, said Dan Zimmerman, who represents The Associated Press and 24 other media organizations that sued.

"There's not much we can do at this minute," Zimmerman said. "We'll just have to wait until it gets to the appeals court."

Bell, 17, was sentenced to 18 months in a juvenile facility on Dec. 3. He was given credit for the 10 months he had already served.

Bell was charged with taking part in an attack last December on Justin Barker, a white student at Jena High School. Barker spent several hours in the emergency room after the attack, but was discharged and attended a school event later in the day.

Barker and his parents filed a civil suit this week against the LaSalle Parish School Board, the parents of the young men accused of beating him, and the adult members of the Jena Six.

Bell originally was charged as an adult with attempted murder. That charge was reduced before a jury convicted him in June of aggravated second-degree battery. In September that verdict was thrown out and Bell was ordered tried as a juvenile.

The charges against Bell and five others _ the so-called Jena Six _ sparked a huge civil-rights demonstration in Jena in September.

The activists said prosecutors treated blacks more harshly than whites, and pointed to an incident three months before the attack on Barker in which three other white teens were accused of hanging nooses from a tree at the high school. The three were suspended from school but never criminally charged; LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters has said there was no state crime to charge them with.

The AP and other news organizations went to court seeking permission to attend hearings in Bell's case, and to review transcripts of previous hearings and other court records in the central Louisiana case.

New York State of Mind

Ruston Man Who Claims Someone Put a Noose In His Work Locker is Arrested for Work Theft

(December - 4 - 2007)

RUSTON (TV8) - A Lincoln Parish man is being investigated for two separate incidents. Both alleged crimes happened while he was working at the Lowes in Ruston. TV8's Jennifer Townley reports.

25-year-old Jonathan McZeal was booked at the Lincoln Parish Jail Tuesday.

He turned himself into police custody after learning Ruston Police had a warrant out for his arrest.

McZeal works at Lowes in Ruston, where he's accused of stealing about 6-thousand dollars.

He's being charged with theft over 500-dollars for refund fraud.

Lieutenant Curtis Hawkins says, "he would either of somehow obtained a receipt or someone would bring a receipt in and he would either give the money back or take money out of the register and keep it himself, um, you know, something along those lines, where there was no merchandise turned back in to balance that out."

The alleged thefts happened between August Second and October 20th.

Meanwhile, Ruston Police are also investigating a claim McZeal made in November, just a few weeks after the last theft at Lowes took place.

McZeal told police he found a noose and a hate letter in his locker at work.

Hawkins says, "right now we're treating these as two separate cases. The noose complaint that was called in, the harassment, the threatening letter that was called in was one case. During the course of that Lowes said hey this guy, we're going to contact you and they contacted us about the internal theft complaint that was going on there at Lowes. It just happened to be the same guy. We don't know if there's any type of connection or thing like that."

If police find that McZeal filed a false police report about the noose to cover up the alleged theft he could be charged with criminal mischief.

Hawkins says police are following leads on the noose incident.

Criminal mischief is considered a misdemeanor offense.
Jonathan McZeal is 25 years of age.

Congressman Conyers?! The Bishop says, the rule of justice in america is to deprive the poor & black of their rights as much as possible. The rule of justice for the poor & the black and all people of color, should be to 'bang the walls' of injustice until they crash and come tumbling down like humpty dumpty!

Judge J P Mauffray and his partners in crime are in contempt of court, a court presided over by an adhoc judge appointed by the LOUISIANA STATE SUPREME COURT! It should by "Krystal" clear now that the JUDICIARY COMMISSION & the LOUISIANA ATTORNEY DISCIPLINARY BOARD should step in and do its job.

A hearing should be now held, on the judicial malfeasance & prosecutorial "indiscretions" which have emanated from the 28th Judicial District. Mauffray, in contempt of Court; will the Judidciary Commission, put the blind fold on like the lady, holding the unbalanced scales of justice in Louisiana.

The coercive matters at hand, should require another round of subpeona-ed Court officials; including the Court Administrator, the Clerk of Court; his assistant(s) the Criminal Clerk of Court, the Civil Clerk of Court [in reference to the Barker family suit & possible manipulative malfeasance in office] plus, the defense attorneys for Mychal Bell, Louis G. Scott, Bob Noel, Peggy Sullivan & *Carol Powell-Lexing.

Such a subpeona should also include *Sister Krystal Muhammad, Regional Director of the New Black Panther Party in New Orleans. The alledged Thursday 29 November filing of the civil suit at 11:56am & the ensuing pending court case of December 6th 2007, of which case; certain attorney(s) were still working towards a December 6th Trial.

Now, all proceedings concerning the Mychal Bell case and plea, & consequently the other Jena Six defendants, should be enjoined by a higher court, possibly at the federal level; from pursuing any further action until a "FINDING OF FEDERAL FACT can be garnered.

Again, we call on President George W. Bush, to issue an executive order, demanding a full & thorough investigation of the matters concerning the 28th Judical Court District & Jena,Louisiana!

Bell's records closed while ruling appealed
Staff and AP reports

An appeal is being filed to challenge the opening of criminal records of "Jena Six" defendant Mychal Bell.

Meanwhile, LaSalle Parish officials aren't releasing those records and already have rejected a media request for them.

An order by 9th District Judge Thomas Yeager of Rapides Parish to open all proceedings and records concerning Bell is not yet final, said Dan Zimmerman, who represents The Town Talk, The Associated Press and 23 other media organizations that sued. |then|
gssc Free Michael Cobb

Access to Mychal Bell's court records denied
Staff report • news@thenewsstar.com • September 26, 2009
|now|
The Louisiana Supreme Court, by a 5-2 vote, denied a writ application Friday by a group of media agencies, including The News-Star, for access to court records and transcripts in the case of Mychal Bell, a member of the "Jena Six."

The ruling leaves intact a June decision by the state 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal that said a trial court had "erred in ordering that the transcripts of all hearings held, or to be held, in this juvenile's case be made available to the public, and, in ordering that, following an in camera inspection, the juvenile's record be open to the public."
Bell was first charged as an adult in the case of six black males accused of beating a white classmate at Jena High School, but his case eventually moved to juvenile court. Media organizations filed a civil lawsuit last year, arguing that those records should be open.
A state appeals court in April reversed a ruling that would have allowed the public to see transcripts of all hearings in the case of the only Jena Six defendant to be tried so far.
A three-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeal unanimously ruled that because Bell's case is in juvenile court, all records are private — even those of hearings that should have been open to the public. The media are asking the Supreme Court to overturn that ruling.
Bell was convicted in 2007 as an adult on a charge of second-degree battery in the December 2006 attack on another student at Jena High, but the Third Circuit overturned that verdict, saying he should have been tried as a juvenile.
Juvenile proceedings for felonies or violent crimes must be open to the public under Louisiana law, the Third Circuit ruled.
Both sides in the case agree that Bell's case was a violent felony, it said, and Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr. should have opened the hearings.
However, the judges ruled, there is no requirement for a juvenile's record or transcripts to be open.
It overturned 9th Judicial District Judge Thomas Yeager's ruling that the transcripts should be public because the hearings should have been.

The Bottom Line:In the Final Analysis

2007-10-26T03:49:00.000-05:00

In the final Analysis we have a very untenable situation in America and Louisiana in particular. If someone doesn't truly step-up to the plate; and let's deal with the facts as they are, we are going to be sorrowfully surprised. I mean truly; beyond the rhetoric & the dogma. Beyond personal opinion and offense, beyond our own personal agenda, beyond our own personal upsetness. Hell, I'm upset with a lot of things, but that don'y get 'em fixed. Folks need stuff filed in court. Crazy stuff filed. This ain't the 50's, this is the millenium, and we're in a count down to the hand of God's destruction! Yeah, you might not like it, but that is what is going on. We, the people, must stand together!! Stop the Crapola.

The opposition loves to see us clowning, the opposition thrives on seeing us indecisive.

Attorneys file more motions to open Bell hearing, data
Town Talk staff

The attorneys for several media agencies, including The Town Talk, fighting to have Mychal Bell's juvenile hearing open to the public are filing additional petitions after Monday's filings were questioned by the court.

According to a release from Dan Zimmerman at the New Orleans law firm Phelps Dunbar LLP, the Petition to Intervene in Bell's juvenile proceedings, the court was uncertain whether outside parties could intervene in juvenile matters.

"We believe the law does authorize such intervention, but rather than spending time fighting a tangential battle, we opted to file the attached Petition for Writ of Mandamus and/or Injunction to Open Court Proceedings, to Unseal Court Record and to Lift Gag Order (with related orders), and the Memorandum in Support of the Petition, which we have now fax-filed with the 28th Judicial District court clerk in Jena," Zimmerman wrote in the release.

Those petitions would have the same outcome as those filed earlier this week, he said.
The attorneys have also asked that another judge be appointed to rule on the petitions as 28th Judicial District Court Judge J.P. Mauffray is one of the defendants, along with LaSalle Parish Clerk of Court Steve Crooks.

Zimmerman said another judge should be appointed as "we do not believe that a judge should be called upon to mandamus himself."

If successful with the petitions, the media will have access to all court proceedings in the Bell case, to the court record and to transcripts of prior hearings that were closed to the press and public, he said. And the gag order on the trial participants will be lifted.

The hearing is set for Nov. 2.
Originally published October 26, 2007
GSSC/jfal/irml

In the 2008 Legislative Session, the legislature must act decisively.
We cannot continue to see our children
brutalized by this unjust system.

The purveyors of such actions,
deprive our children of a proper
education, & no one is doing
anything about, it. Our Children,
through leap, the prison pipeline, the post
integration-resegregationist mentality are
being destroyed by the government

I guess we'll just have to wait & See; huh.
hl

America's Six:The 6's Parents-Mychal Bell & The Jena Six

2007-08-25T05:28:00.001-05:00

9-9-2007

JENA'S D-DAY
--The Injustice Resistance Movement WE WILL RESIST THIS INCURSIONIST REGIME UNTO THE FULL!! Resistance!Now!!

Remember Durban Sept 2001?!
In Jena, Louisiana September 9, 2007; 6 years to the date, [6 the number of man], Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. appeared at Goodpine.
Selma's Brown Chapel AME 7-19-07- ->

Is it possible to have not only a New South but also a New America.

The Six's parents are catching it. Can you really bury the past?

As the black students were being tormented with racial epithets, a group of boys suddenly turned and, went off. It may have not been the right response, but certainly the racially derogatory words were not appropriate either, coming from the lips of Justin Barker & others on that fateful day in December 2006. This day, is a day, which will live on in infamy in the minds of true Americans.

A Day that set the tone for the incorrigible society in which we live to be exposed, fully. We must repent; all of us, young and old, for our violent past. Stop the video games, the television programs, the movies and all such purveyance of violence as the rule of the day! So that means we must then STOP THE WAR.

There were at least 10 to 15 boys, involved in the melee at Jena High School. All things considered, whose foot actually inflicted the unconciounable blow! And why wasn't Justin Barker, dealt with appropriately about the firearm on Campus?
UNEQUAL JUSTICE!
What were the Fair Barn fighters charged with? UNEQUAL JUSTICE!

The public display of a weapon or brandishing a weapon, at the Gotta Go - Store!
UNEQUAL JUSTICE.

The teachers stating [in the initial situation] they wouldn't teach if the 6 were allowed back in school. And to this day, that theory is in existence as evidenced by the Judges own words.
Its unequal justice in education, when tax dollars are utilized to prostitute black boys athletic abilities to their own detriment, for the greater good of the school. All the while, the "system" [coaches, principals, assistant d a's & so forth] allow tendencies toward violence to to pervade unchecked, as long as the athlete performs.

That's called systematic racism & is capitalism at its best. Capitalism=extract the goods at any cost, reap the benefit no matter who gets hurt.

Its UNEQUAL JUSTICE, when the judicial system, try you as an adult; and deny you the Constitutional Right to an [un] excessive bond, on [sealed] juvenile charges, most likely, presumably for the greater good in their minds; why, because the person is a detriment or danger to society.

Well, it is now eight months hence, the legal authority that handles the indivdual in question; whose custody he's in, admits, submits and says, the boy has been affected by the now eight months of incarceration and is well changed. Not the same!
Well on the way to Rehabilitation!

Mos Def for Black August speaks to American Criminal Justice Systems in NY,NY.

'Jena Six' defendant's criminal history comes to light; bond denied
By Abbey Brown
abrown@thetowntalk.com
(318) 487-6387

JENA — In addition to Mychal Bell’s recent felony conviction, his criminal history was revealed today to include four other violent crimes.

Because of that, a LaSalle Parish judge denied the 17-year-old bond in his current scrape with the law.

Bell was convicted in June of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit that crime for his part in a Dec. 4 incident at Jena High School that left fellow student Justin Barker unconscious.

Bell is one of six black students, known as the “Jena Six,” who have been charged in connection with the attack on Barker, who is white.

According to court documents, someone hit Barker from behind, knocking him out, and then others began to kick and stomp his “lifeless” body. He spent about three hours in a local emergency room for treatment of injuries to his head and face.

Three months prior to that attack, Bell committed two violent crimes while on probation for a Christmas Day battery in 2005, according to testimony. Later that same week, he led the Jena Giants to a shutout victory in a football game against the Buckeye Panthers.

Bell was adjudicated – the juvenile equivalent to a conviction – of battery on Sept. 2 and criminal damage to property on Sept. 3, said Cynthia Bradford, LaSalle Parish deputy clerk.

A few days later, on Sept. 8, Bell rushed 12 times for 108 yards and scored three touchdowns – one of the best performances of the year for the standout athlete.

Mack Fowler, Jena High’s football coach at the time, said Friday he hadn’t heard about Bell’s specific criminal history.

“That’s the first I’ve heard of these,” Fowler said of the September incidents. “And in a small town like this, you would think I would have heard about it.”

Fowler said that at one point he had a policy in place more severe than the school’s when it came to students with discipline problems. But he said he discovered that while he was punishing his players, the school “wasn’t doing anything” to them.

Fowler said he decided then that he was going to do the same thing the school did – nothing.

The issue of bail
According to Louisiana code, “bail may be allowed” after conviction but before sentencing if the maximum sentence is more than five years’ imprisonment. Bell faces as many as 22½ years.

The code gives an exception of “when the court has reason to believe, based on competent evidence, that the release of the person convicted will pose a danger to any other person or the community.”

LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters pointed out that Bell was placed on probation until his 18th birthday – Jan. 18, 2008 – after an incident of battery on Dec. 25, 2005. After being placed on probation, he was adjudicated of three other crimes, the two in September and another charge of criminal damage to property that occurred on July 25, 2006.

“Mr. Bell has proven he doesn’t deserve bail,” Walters said. “The state suggests that bail should not be allowed.”

Bell’s defense attorney, Louis Scott, pointed out that Bell’s father, Marcus Jones, and a number of area ministers have pledged their support to Bell to keep him on the right path.

Jones testified that he already had scheduled an interview for his son at Holy Savior Menard Central High School in Alexandria to see if Bell could attend there if released on bond. Jones testified that he didn’t move back to Jena until February – after all of the incidents involving his son – but that he was committed to staying here to exercise greater supervision over Bell.

Jones said he had been living in Dallas for the past seven years.

Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr., with the 28th Judicial District Court, went over the factors in Louisiana code used to determine bail, pointing out specifics in Bell’s case:

-- The seriousness of the offense: “It is a serious offense because it is a crime of violence,” he said.

-- The weight of the evidence against the defendant: Mauffray said it was “pretty weighty” considering the jury convicted Bell.

-- The previous criminal record of the defendant: He said a criminal record was obviously present considering that Bell had been adjudicated on three offenses that were committed while he was on probation and then convicted this year in adult court.

-- The nature and seriousness of the danger to any other person or the community that would be posed by the defendant’s release: Again, Mauffray pointed out that Bell now has either been adjudicated or convicted of five crimes of violence.
uWhether the defendant is currently out on bond on a previous felony arrest: He cited Bell’s presence on probation and the fact that there were three other cases – not including the case Bell is currently in jail for – awaiting disposition.

“Past behavior is the best prediction of future behavior,” Mauffray said.

Melissa Bell, Mychal’s mother, grabbed her son’s hand, squeezing hard and began to cry when court was dismissed. With denial of bail, Bell will remain behind bars until the completion of his still-undetermined sentence. He has been behind bars since his December arrest.

A motion hearing is scheduled for Sept. 4. Bell’s attorneys are hoping their client’s adult conviction will be voided and the case remanded to juvenile court. If that motion is denied, attorneys have filed a motion for a new trial based on insufficient defense counsel for Bell among other things.

Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 20.

Town Talk reporter Bob Tompkins contributed to this report.Mos Def for Black August

"Pressed out of measure"2Cor.1:8-------->
The Prophet & Bishop himself.Durban Sept 2001?!

Al Sharpton/sermon

Mychal Bell left Hanging

2007-07-30T13:21:00.000-05:00

But Help was on the Way

dateline
August 7, 2007 - September 4th Court Date to consider Motions!!
Motions filed by Mychal Bell's Attorney Louis Scott; could result in the ending of the court battle concerning the Jena Six.

They tried to leave him hanging anyway. The entire little crew. The folks in charge of the system, both the Blacks and the Whites. Here we have the ACLU state person in Jena, Louisiana; attempting to tell the six parents how to handle the defense committee funds, put there for their children; held captive by this unjust politicised-judicial system. What the Jena 6's parents failed to realize, it is impossible to pacify the powers that be and get freedom at the same time.

Here you have organizations of white folks talking about; send us money, we're the ones who developed the grassroots effort in Jena, Louisiana. Here, you have a, so; subtily, subversive, tactic that the local NAACP branch president ALLEDGEDLY blew the state Vice President off because the Louisiana State Conference of the National Association of Colored People, didn't move fast enough. All the while a so-called civil liberties group, ostracizing a black baptist pastor for inviting the Jena Six Defense Committee folk to attend the Church service at least once, as a matter of respect.

Plus, a few weeks ago, Bill Quigley purportedly sent by Tory Pegram, through [she said] state Senator Charles D. Jones; to file motions to fire indigent defender Blane Williams, among other motions; and yet, no certificate of service was filed, meaning the opposing attorneys; the D. A. & Blane Williams weren't notified; rendering the motions of none effect. All the while, Bill Quigley the accomplished civil rights attorney, leaves the country for three weeks. And his second in command, Ms. Fernandez; whom his voicemail said was the next contact person had left the country also, leaving only an administrative assistant to handle the matters at hand.

Needless to say no satisfaction was obtained in the Bill Quigley Fiasco.

In the meantime, up pops Blane Williams and accosted the boy Mychal Bell at LaSalle Correctional Center, and told him; "You can't fire me", as if to further intimidate and threaten a young black boy locked down in a state-side repressive prison system.

And now, today, 30 July 2007, the subversion by the system is still in place. The effects of a systematic approach to dis-embow any black move owned by black folks: the ACLU's Tory Pegram along with King Downing' will attempt to further destroy any semblance of a unified black front.

The article below appeared in the News-Star & The Town Talk this morning. But by 3:26pm the articles were gone, off both sites. HMMMMMMMM.

Convicted Jena student gets beefed up appellate team
July 30, 2007

The Associated Press

MONROE — A group of Monroe defense lawyers has taken on the appeal of a black high school student convicted last month of beating a white student in Jena.

The lawyers will take up the case of Mychal Bell, one of six black high school students known as the Jena six.

Louis Scott, one of the Monroe lawyers, said Bell’s case and trial were fraught with errors.

“Almost always when you have an unfair result, somewhere down the line you had an unfair process,” Scott said.

A six-person, all-white jury found Bell, 17, guilty of second-degree aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit second-degree aggravated battery on June 28 for the Dec. 4 assault on Justin Barker.

Bell had been charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit attempted second-degree murder, but prosecutors reduced the charges.

The other five defendants are Theo Shaw, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and an unnamed juvenile. They are still facing the more serious charges.

Scott said had Bell been charged with battery in the beginning the case never would have been transferred from the juvenile system.

“The juvenile court system was designed to handle such things as school fights and problems and differences that arise in the school system,” Scott said. “It’s based on the realization that many times immature people take immature actions or react in immature ways.”

He also said the trial should have been moved away from Jena because of pretrial publicity.

Bell is scheduled for sentencing in September. JFAL

So, all the while; the help was on the way! And it is still on the Way. More help. Dr. King kinda help, black & white TOGETHER!! And with no shenanigans.hlr

NAACP Issues Emergency National Resolution on Jena Six

2007-07-13T22:49:00.014-05:00

In Its Detroit,Michigan national meeting the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP], promulgated an Emergency National Resolution in the case of the Jena Six Trials, of six black students in Jena, Louisiana. The Regional six State Conferences also issued a Resolution in the Jena Situation.

The National Resolution signed, by Chairman Julian Bond and Interim President Dennis Courtland Hayes, demand an immediate United States Department of Justice investigation into the high bond incarcerations, the charges and the recent suspect trial and conviction of Mychal Bell, who is scheduled for sentencing July 31, 2007.

In other developments:
Concerning Reed Walters. It has been learned that the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled against LaSalle Parish D. A. J. Reed Walters in a suit involving use of his office as a prosecutor inferrring he misused the prosecutorial discretionary authority of his office.

The Resolution from the National Office also states that it would be impossible not to take a stand against the present legal actions in LaSalle Courts, to do so would set a national precedent for such incidents to occur in other courts in the nation's cities. This recognises the Jena Six trials as a significant major occurence in th nation's history. It has also been decided that Harvard Law students will be deployed to assist attorneys with their work. The NAACP will request each defendant's attorney response to the Law Students participation in the trials and legal proceedings. Pertinent Supreme Court Case "State Of Louisiana v. Jason Helou"

The Collateral Episode

The Jena Six

Shotgun Justice

1 Clear Example

Mass Movement Against Wrongful Convictions:Initiated through-Jena Six!

2007-07-04T13:22:00.001-05:00

Mychal Bell's father Marcus Jones leaves the LaSalle Parish Courthouse after his son's Conviction!Thursday June 28th 2007

The Jena Six can breathe a sigh of relief, The Reverend Al Sharpton and the New York city based National Action Network is coming to Jena, Louisiana. Just a few moments ago, Rev. Al, interviewing, Marcus Jones on Sharptontalk.net announced that he and his organization is coming to Louisiana. Sharpton was shocked absolutely, at what has occurred in Jena, Louisiana.

Sharpton, asked if there had been any appeals yet, and Jones said; they were seeking for an attorney now to help in the situation. Rev. Al, said as soon as the attorneys' offices open tomorrow, the attorney would be contacted. He [Sharpton] also, on the air stated, the National Action Network would help with defraying attorney costs.

Rev. Sharpton, told Mr. Jones, that he would be obtaining attorney aid, for Mychal Bell, in response to an appeal Jones made stating that his son needs an attorney.

Mr. Jones, brought out about the lack of defense by the court-appointed lawyer. He also brought out, the defense attorney had placed he and Mychal Bell's mother, Melissa Bell on the witness list, which Judge J. P. Mauffray of the 28th Judicial District enforced a gag order, baring the mother and father of Mychal Bell from the court room; they were never called as witnesses.

The Rev. Raymond Brown Chapter Chairman of the New Orleans Branch of the National Action Network, also took part in the interview, and announced a "mass gathering of national proportions" in Jena. Lafayette activist Khadijah Rashad, spoke also of how individuals were tear gassed after a rally on Friday June 29th, after the latest rally in Jena. She stated a plane flew over and gassed people after the rally. Rashad also cited about the, New Iberia incident where citizens were teargassed last autumn by law enforcement.

We should understand that those in charge of the Judicial process in Louisiana are as much responsible for this travesty as any; especially DA Reed Walters, Judge Mauffray. Blane Williams is a pawn in this injustice. Ultimately, all of these individuals are subject to the Louisiana Supreme Court's various entities. We should understand that lawyers are dis-barred by the La. Supreme Court. Judges are investigated by the La. Supreme Court's Judiciary Commission. - - Would it not be the Louisiana Attorney General's duty to deal with a prosecutor's & District Attorneys.
Bell's parents
So, the Mass Movement Against Wrongful Convictions has begun. Others in Louisiana, such as Michael Jarvis Cobb are caught up in this web of judicatory prowess against the poor and blacks specifically. Now, that national attention has focused on the Louisiana Justice System, it is time to bring to task to the full, the mechanisms that destroy us, in this judicial process. Cobb was convicted of rapes of three white women and sentenced to 349 years in February 2005. The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Baton Rouge denied Cobbs appeal June 26th 2006. The Louisiana Supreme Court refused to hear a writ earlier this year. Cobb is a prisoner in Angola State Prison. There was not a DNA match. Cobb confessed, under duress. That family has continued to secure his release. The "Jena Six" Trials, have given new life to the push against Wrongful Convictions in Louisiana and America.

For the families of persons with similar occurences of like manner, this is the time to come together. We have asked for a convening in Jena, Louisiana to deal with these issues in Louisiana. The boys of Jena are; Mychal Bell, Bryant Purvis, Carwin Jones, Theodore Shaw and the "so-called" un-named juvenile; plus another black 18 year old only charged with the shotgun incident at the Gotta Go Convenience store. Mychal Bell's sentencing is scheduled for July 31st. It's in the peoples' hands now! hlr

The Jena 6 - Six Students Facing 20 Years In Prison

A "Plea" for Justice!?:The Infamy Continues

2007-06-30T09:45:00.000-05:00

It must be said, that Jena has become a "flashpoint" for the upheavel in American society. Eventhough a klansman has been convicted in Jackson, Ms., this MONTH, the vestiges of racism are ripe, as the nooses in the school's tree attest. These same vestiges were announced from the Supreme Court this MONTH. At this very moment the Louisiana State Conference of the NAACP is marching from the Governor's mansion to the Louisiana Capitol [the Dept of Education] on BESE[Board of Elementary & Secondary Education].

It is however, ironic that as LEAP is protested in Baton Rouge, the US Supreme Court in D. C., has begun its attempt to dismantle Brown v. Board of Education. Before Brown, their had been no "law" or legal standing against seperate facilities enforced. That, coupled with Plessy v. Ferguson's undoing, by the billy clubs and klan killings from immediately before "Bloody Sunday" to Memphis 1968; the "moral depravity of overt racism was buried, but not dead." And so, the lunch counters and the retail establishments opened up; housing and voting and, 1970's consent decrees; and private schools and "white flight", and the breeding ground for a covert festering suspicious racism. A morally corrupt "stealth racism" based in the South and propagated by The American Judicial Process.

This process, nationwide emanates from 400 Royal Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, where the Louisiana Supreme Court sits. The place[400 Royal] where Louis A. Martinet & a select New Orlean's group planned the Plessy rail car protest, evolving into a suit, that went to the US Supreme Court; is [Louisiana Supreme Court]practicing judicial voodoo.-hlr
- - - -
[reader comment thetowntalk.com]
Race! I don't care whether this is about race or not, this has gone to far and the punishment is way too harsh. These are children, YES, they need to learn to treat each other better but not by sending them to jail for the next 20 years or longer. I'm white, my son is white, he was jumped by 4 white boys, they broke his jaw, plus some other injuries. The justice? Those children didn't end up in prision, they paid all the hospital bills. I just don't undertsand sending these children to jail where their lives will be forever ruined by this. My heart and prayers and with all those involved!

Posted by: Dawn on Sat Jun 30, 2007 6:12 am
thetowntalk.com comment forum on "Jena Six"

Crowd of 30 in Jena says conviction was a ‘miscarriage of justice’
By Abbey Brown
abrown@thetowntalk.com
(318) 487-6387

JENA -- The mood Friday morning on the lawn of the LaSalle Parish Courthouse was far from somber as a group of close to 30 shouted "No justice, no peace."

Less than 24 hours after the conviction of Mychal Bell, the first of the "Jena Six" to face trial, supporters of the six black students said they aren't giving up

"You have to confront injustice," said the Rev. Raymond Brown, with the National Action Network. "This was a total and complete miscarriage of justice."

Throughout the rally, speakers gestured toward the courthouse using such words as "distressing," "unethical" and "battle." This was the same courthouse where an all-white jury convicted Bell, 17, of crimes that could put him in jail until he is almost 40.
District Attorney Reed Walters initially charged Bell and the others with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit that crime in connection with a Dec. 4 attack at Jena High School on white student Justin Barker that left him unconscious. Only Bell's charges were reduced, and that happened without explanation Monday.

The attack and subsequent arrests of the teens have made headlines from Chicago to China and have been held up as the culmination of racial unrest in Jena.

"I've seen a lot of trials in my time," said Alan Bean, with the Texas-based Friends of Justice. "... And I have never seen a more distressing miscarriage of justice than what happened in LaSalle Parish yesterday."

Local supporters stressed they aren't done trying to get the charges dropped against all of the students and get Bell's conviction overturned.

"We're going to do whatever it takes from this day forward to fight... not just for these six," said Catrina Wallace, secretary of the LaSalle Parish chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "There's six more coming after this. And six more coming after that. They keep coming."

She said race doesn't matter -- black or white, "everybody knows right from wrong" and needs to stick together.

Caseptla Bailey, mother of Robert Bailey Jr., sent a plea out to national organizations and agencies such as the NAACP, U.S. and Louisiana Attorney General's offices, Gov. Kathleen Blanco and President George W. Bush to right the wrong that she said was done in allowing an all-white jury to convict Bell.

"We're not surprised, but we're highly upset about the outcome of the trial on yesterday," she said.

Included on the list of demands Bailey read during the rally were: that all of the charges be dropped against the students; that the six students receive their credits back from the school; that nothing from the incident be included in juvenile crime records; that an investigation be made into the nooses found hanging at the school in September; and that an investigation be made of Walters and alleged unethical behavior.

Herbert McCoy pleaded with those present to help raise the money to bail out his cousin, Theo Shaw, who is still jailed in lieu of $90,000 bond. He also was scheduled to face trial last week, but his case was continued without a date set.

McCoy said he and those with the Jena Six Defense Committee have raised about $49,000 in property so far for the bond.

"We want this child out of jail today," he said in his plea. "We want him out of there now."

While speaking to the gathered crowd, McCoy became emotional, raising his fist toward the courthouse.

"Reed Walters, the battle is on," he shouted. "... My brothers and sisters in Jena, you better get out of your houses. You better come out and defend your children ... because they are incarcerating them by the thousands. Jena's not the beginning, but Jena has crossed the line."

Khadijah Rashad of Lafayette described what happened to Bell on Thursday as a "modern-day lynching."

"We've got to fight force with force," Rashad said.

The Rev. Brown said the families of the Jena Six need to continue to stay strong.

"I'm afraid after the outcome of this trial that some of the defendants are planning on agreeing to a plea bargain," he said. "That would harm the struggle. They would leave themselves open to great harm with appeals and post-conviction relief."

Brown is hopeful the next case will be handled differently.

"What happened was a slap in the face to the civil rights movement," he said. "It proves that racism and jury fixing is alive and well in the Southern states, especially Louisiana."

But many in the community were quick to point out that although it was an all-white jury, there were minorities that were called to serve but weren't in court that day.

Because the database that creates the jury pool doesn't have a record of race, the number of each race called for jury duty isn't known.

"It was a fair trial," Harold Stevens said. "I think if you done the crime, you should be paying for it. I think the others involved should be punished too."

Stevens, who has lived in Jena his entire 87 years, said the incident at the high school and subsequent attention garnered is the "worst thing to happen in Jena in a long time."

"There's been a real good relationship between the blacks and whites for many, many years," he said. "I think it is still going to be that way once things get back to normal."

But that's what McCoy is afraid of. He said normal for the Jena justice system is to convict on "trumped-up charges."

"Justice is not right when you put on the wrong charges and then convict," he said. "... I believe in justice. I believe in the point of the law. I believe in accepting of the punishment. If I'm guilty, convict me and punish me, but if I'm innocent, no justice."

"No peace!" the crowd shouted.

Mass Movement needed against Wrongful Convictions

2007-06-21T18:10:00.000-05:00

Nina Morrison, James Waller Dallas, Tx exoneree & Barry C. Scheck of Innocence Project and Jeff Blackburn

Video Jena Trial Conviction June 28, 2007

"What prisoner would want their brother, sister, cousin, nephew or neice, or friend behind bars?" And what if the person was incarcerated wrongly? What if that close relationed person were WRONGFULLY CONVICTED? Yet, untold many are in prisons across America. Wrongly. The quotes is the quesition, that is posed to prisoners, they know who belongs & who sticks out as being in the wrong place.

The Innocence Project counts 200 plus citizens have been exonerated, from a wrongly convicted sentence.

We [the Nation] need a national movement to affect the personal consciouses of Americans for the Wrongfully Convicted. A national movement to stop wrongful arrests and incarcerations. Why? It is immoral.

Therefore, we are asking the Innocence Project of New York and The Innocence Network, the Center on Wrongful Convictions and The Louisiana Capital Assistance Center to intervene in American history with your resources and contacts in academia to begin a "mass movement" in the United States Prison System and the Judicial process.

In addition, a request is being made to The Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama in Montgomery, because of the History associated with Montgomery. This is a HUMAN RIGHTS issue. It is immoral.

We ask interested parties to begin to prepare for " a mass prison contact ". The belief is, that if prisoners themselves, would on behalf of the wrongfully convicted; write the U. S. Justice Department, first; to solicit its inquiry into this situation it [DoJ] would have to act. Secondly, after this is completed in all 50 states prisons, the prison population write the United States House & Senate Judiciary Committees to implore their immediate investigation of wrongful convictions, incarcerations and arrests.

The organizations mentioned are being asked to make the initial prison contacts, to open the channels in the prison hierarchy, such that the correspondence would flow undeterred. From every prison in the United States, the prisoners themselves know who does and does not belong in the system.

National Movement Against Wrongful ConvictionsJena Trial Conviction

Louisiana:Reeling-"In the Undertow" as the Infamy Reigns

2007-06-06T11:10:00.000-05:00

House moves to Oust Jefferson, the first black Louisiana Congressman since Reconstruction. Committee Votes Overwhelming on two seperate actions! A precedent may be set if the Congressman's removal is voted for by the full House before guilt is adjudicated.
Barack Obama in Hampton, Virginia warns of "Quiet Riots"
Emancipation Oak
As Congressman William Jefferson is indicted in Alexandria, Virginia; fate would have it that Senator Barack Obama would be speaking at Hampton University in Virgina in the shadows of the Emancipation Oak. That, he [Obama] would reference New Orleans and the Bush Administration failures is no coincidence, however. Partisanship is on the attack! In May, as Alberto Gonzales was being grilled by House & Senate Committees Republican Senator John Sensenbrenner unleashed a partisan ployed demand for the Attorney General to expedite the Jefferson indictment.hlr

updated 10 June 2007 hlr
Jefferson says he’s innocent of charges 'Did I sell my office or trade official acts for money? Absolutely not.'
Congressman fighting allegations of bribery

By GERARD SHIELDS
Advocate Washington bureau
Published: Jun 9, 2007 - Page: 1a

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Speaking to reporters Friday for the first time since his indictment on public corruption charges, U.S. Rep. William Jefferson maintained his innocence after pleading not guilty to 16 counts, including bribery, racketeering and money laundering.

“We are going to fight our hearts out to clear my name,” Jefferson said in a news conference outside the federal courthouse here.

Prosecutors accuse Jefferson of using his influence as co-chairman of the congressional Africa Investment and Trade Caucus to broker deals in various African nations, and of demanding kickbacks for himself and for family members.

The indictment, issued Monday, says Jefferson received more than $500,000 in bribes and sought millions of dollars more between 2000 and 2005.

After his formal arraignment before U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, the New Orleans Democrat made a statement before a horde of media and a bank of cameras. Standing under a statue of Lady Justice, Jefferson accused the federal government of persecuting him and his family.

The Harvard-educated attorney also hinted at his likely defense: that he was acting as a private businessman in representing American companies referred to in his 94-page indictment that were trying to do business in Africa.

In return, the companies allegedly paid money to companies led by Jefferson family members. Jefferson was also accused of demanding shares of stock from the companies. Prosecutors accused Jefferson of failing to disclose any income he received from the business deals, as required by House rules.

The tall and lanky Jefferson appeared at court and at the news conference in his trademark gray suit with a light blue shirt and red tie.

“I know what congressmen can do to help someone: passing legislation that would help a certain industry, securing earmarks and amending tax and trade bills,” Jefferson said at the news conference. “I did none of that.”

Jefferson was freed on a $100,000 personal recognizance bond. He will not have to pay any money but would forfeit the bond should he violate pre-trial requirements that include surrendering his passport to his defense attorney.

Ellis set a trial date of Jan. 16, 2008, after Jefferson’s attorney, Robert Trout, said he will need that much time to prepare for the case, in which Jefferson is accused of collaborating in 11 complex business schemes involving African telecommunications, oil drilling and waste recycling deals.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Lytle said the prosecution will need about four weeks to present its evidence, which includes eight file cabinets of documents and extensive tape recordings.

The judge said he is not likely to grant the government that much time to present its case.

Ellis gave Jefferson permission to travel between Washington and his district, but any international or other national travel must be approved in advance by the judge.

Ellis also ordered Jefferson and his attorney to work out arrangements so Jefferson will not have access to shotguns and rifles in his home. Jefferson told the judge the firearms are used for hunting.

“I’ve been hunting since I was 10-years-old,” Jefferson told Ellis.

Jefferson appeared outside the courtroom holding hands with his wife of 37 years, Andrea, and flanked by his youngest daughter, Akila.

“Did I make mistakes in judgment along the way that I deeply regret? Yes,” Jefferson said. “But did I sell my office or trade official acts for money? Absolutely not.”

Jefferson would not answer a question shouted by a reporter on what he considered mistakes.

Jefferson called the federal charges “contrived” and “misleading.” He painted himself as the victim of a government sting.

According to court records, FBI agents videotaped Jefferson picking up a $100,000 cash bribe in 2005 from an informant in a hotel parking garage. Two days later, FBI agents raided Jefferson’s Washington home and found $90,000 in marked bills in a box in his freezer. Jefferson allegedly was to give the cash to a high-ranking Nigerian official.

Having the money was not illegal, Jefferson said Friday, since he never delivered the alleged bribe.

“The $90,000 was the FBI’s money,” Jefferson said. “The FBI gave it to me as part of their plan that I would give it to the Nigerian vice president, but I did not do that.”

Jefferson family members have been implicated in the dealings. His wife headed a consulting company that allegedly received money from companies Jefferson tried to help, prosecutors said. His wife has not been charged with a crime in this case.

Jefferson spelled out the extensive education background of his wife and five daughters.

“Incredibly, we are the same family that the Department of Justice and the FBI would have you believe is a family made up of bribers, racketeers and conspirators,” Jefferson said. “This is not who we are; this is not who I am.”

Earlier in the week, the House voted to send the Jefferson matter to the House Ethics Committee for a formal review. If Jefferson is found guilty of ethics violations, he could be expelled from the chamber.

Ellis also froze $470,000 of Jefferson’s assets on Thursday.

Jefferson acknowledged he faces an uphill challenge against the federal government, which has unlimited resources to prosecute him.

“But I have no doubt that in the most important sense, we have the advantage,” Jefferson said. “The advantage of having right and truth on our side.”
JFAL

'I am absolutely innocent'
Jefferson pleads not guilty to 16 charges
Gannett News Service

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — U.S. Rep. William J. Jefferson declared his innocence Friday, pledging he and his family would "sell every stick of furniture in our home" and anything else they own to prove he did not take payoffs to broker business deals in Africa.
"I am absolutely innocent of the charges leveled against me," the Louisiana Democrat said, standing next to his wife and attorneys outside the federal courthouse. "We are going to fight my heart out to clear my name."
Inside a courtroom minutes earlier, Jefferson's lawyer entered a not guilty plea to 16 counts of racketeering, soliciting bribes, wire fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice.

Federal prosecutor Mark Lytle said the government had collected eight file cabinets worth of evidence, as well as extensive tape recordings, in more than two years of investigative work. He estimated the government would need about four weeks to present its case.
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III scoffed at the notion, saying that much time would put an unnecessary burden on jurors.

"It's ludicrous. No trial should last that long," he said.

Ellis set a jury trial date for Jan. 16. He then ordered Jefferson, who has a law degree from Harvard and a master's degree in law from Georgetown, to surrender his passport and post a $100,000 bond.

Jefferson was granted unrestricted travel privileges between the Washington area and Louisiana, but he must advise the court when traveling elsewhere. Ellis said he expects most of Jefferson's travel requests will be granted.

Jefferson must also surrender the shotguns and rifles he uses for hunting and keeps in his Louisiana home.

Jefferson is charged with paying bribes to a Nigerian official as well as soliciting bribes for himself and his family. He was indicted Monday by a federal grand jury in a case that included the discovery of $90,000 in the freezer of the congressman's Washington home during FBI raids on his New Orleans and Washington homes Aug. 2, 2005.

Jefferson referred to that cash Friday outside the courthouse.

"The $90,000 was the FBI's money. The FBI gave it to me as part of its plan — part of their plan — that I would give it to the Nigerian vice president, but I did not do that," he said. "When all the facts are understood, I expect to be fully vindicated."

Jefferson said his constituents in Louisiana's 2nd Congressional District know he has served them for 17 years "honestly and professionally." That was why he easily won re-election last fall despite a "virtual indictment" in the press, he said.

"I will not be deterred from my duty to serve my constituents back home, in Orleans parish and Jefferson parish, who have faithfully elected me," he said.

But Jefferson, who did not take any questions, also said he made unspecified mistakes in judgments he now deeply regrets.

"Did I sell my office or trade official acts for money? Absolutely not. This case involved purely private business activities and not official acts by me," he said.

Jefferson spoke in detail about his wife and their five daughters, noting their education from Ivy League and other top tier schools. He spoke about the family's pursuit to public service, as well as its patriotism.

"I implore you, the press and the public, to keep an open mind until all the facts are on the table," he said.

If convicted on all counts, Jefferson faces a maximum sentence of 235 years in prison.

Jefferson is the first U.S. official to be charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

On Thursday, the House ethics committee voted to expand its investigation of Jefferson and a federal judge froze his assets.
JFAL

The Shackles in the Shadows of History: Slavery Entangled in US Roots! Washington Post Essay published May 29 2007, contains oral history quotes from Louisiana Slave Mary Reynolds.

Again:The Infamy of Injustice-In the Undertow-Jena,La.

2007-05-19T10:46:00.000-05:00

June 28 2007 4:09p-cst
Black Teen Guilty. 6 Jurors, 6 affirmatives, 1 of the Jena "6" convicted?

A, re-New Jena Prison?
No Wonder! Senator Noble Ellington
amended HB294 byRep. Billy Chandler,
changing the name of the Central
Louisiana Juvenile Detention Authority
to the Central Louisiana Youth Authority
with LaSalle Parish being its location.
Ellington amended the bill from the Senate floor,
before final passage.Bill
The session closes, tomorrow at
6pm June 28th.

"It's up to the people of Louisiana now,
to make a difference" hlr Brown-National Action Network & Conner-NAACP

What is the real reason behind the JENA Six rush to judgment?
A state wide message is being sent.
The Louisiana Legislature in this session has renamed
the "Central Louisiana Juvenile Detention Authority"
and located it in LaSalle Parish.

Trial Continued to June 25th

"JENA SIX" Trial Begins Monday!-['Nifonged'?]

"in the face of heartfelt pleas officials refused to discuss the noose."[eyewitness account]

Jena Rally@LaSalle Courthouse

Racial Demons Rear Heads
Chicago Tribune, Sunday May 20, 2007 Article
Opening of Span Of Gulf Coast Hwy US90
The Jena Six as they have been dubbed are scheduled for trial Monday May 21, 2007 in Lasalle Parish.The ACLU, through a New York representative is spending time in Jena. The National Action Network is represented by the New Orleans Branch Chairman. A Louisiana State Conference of the NAACP vice president has been involved in the case. An adjacent parish local NAACP chapter president is engaged with the families of the defendants. All of this ongoing while the FBI is investigating the 1964 bombing of Frank Morris' business in Ferriday, La.

In Jackson, Mississippi a federal trial begins on May 29th in the 1964 Klan murders of two teens whose bodies were dumped in the Mississippi River near Tallulah, La. And just recently, the most infamously inciteous killing in 1965 of Jimmie Lee Jackson in Marion, Alabama by, now retired Alabama trooper James Bonard Fowler, who infamously recounted the incident in a 2005 newspaper interview is scheduled to go to trial in the ensuing months. The which killing sparked the Selma to Montgomery March, culminating in Bloody Sunday for all the world to see, then, in 1965. All of this in the midst of the swirl of national, state and even international american realignment, should now have us all to know, that most definitely The Winds of Change are blowing again.

Now the lynchman's noose is Wrongful Convictions:the new tyranny of fear. The question remains, what shall be the method to expose this segregationist monstrosity.

I Would have you to know, however, that the roots of American "segregationist turpitude" rest in New Orleans, Louisiana at 400 Royal Street. It was there, Homer Plessy's role was galvanized in the organized challenge of segregationist rulership by a group including Louis A. Martinet. To this day, those roots of the vestiges of segregationist control are maintained in the United States of America from 400 Royal Street in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Louisiana Supreme Court could put a stop to some of the wrongful convictions if it wanted to. The so-called Jena Six case could be halted before it begins to cost the state untold amounts as these indigent defendants begin what could now become the long drudgery of a protracted ACLU or NAACP-LDF or even a United Nations Human Rights inquiry.

Updated 23May2007 0607hrs

<--- Atty Shumate & T. Shaw

King Downing talking to parents --->
'Jena Six' trial continued to next month
By Abbey Brown
abrown@thetowntalk.com
(318) 487-6387

JENA -- Tears streamed down Melissa Bell's face Monday as the judge ruled in favor of LaSalle Parish District Attorney J. Reed Walters' motion to continue her son's trial more than a month.

Across the courtroom, wearing a black-and-white striped jumpsuit and handcuffed, Mychal Bell's head fell backward in frustration when he heard the ruling.

Bell is one of the six Jena High School students who have become known as the "Jena Six." He and Theodore Shaw were scheduled for jury trial Monday on charges of attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder in connection with a Dec. 4 fight at the school that sent fellow student Justin Barker to LaSalle General Hospital.

Bell and Shaw are the only two students charged in the fight who remain in jail, each in lieu of $90,000 bond.
"(Walters) said they needed more time to get the witnesses together," Melissa Bell said outside the LaSalle Parish courtroom. "If you ain't found the witnesses yet or got together what you need, what's another month going to do. What will they do next month if he still doesn't have everything -- continue it again?"

She said her biggest frustration is that her son has been sitting in jail "day in and day out" ready to go to trial while the state has continued to postpone things.

Walters told 28th Judicial District Court Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr. that many of his witnesses had made plans months ago to be out of state this week and that several other witnesses were Jena High teachers or students with finals this week.

Walters also said in court that Dr. Gbolanan Sokoya, one of Barker's emergency room physicians, can't be located.

Both Bell and Shaw's attorneys objected to the continuance.

"We are ready for trial," Bell's attorney, Blane Williams, said in court.

He said they would be willing to work around the school's finals schedule and suggested having the trial in the evening hours to avoid a conflict.

Mauffray said that suggestion and Williams' flexibility were "admirable" but said that if "the shoe were on the other foot, you'd be jumping up and down" requesting a continuance to have time to present material witnesses.

The trial was continued until June 25, with the caveat that Walters be able to produce all of his witnesses by that date, Mauffray said.

According to court documents, Walters has subpoenaed at least 34 witnesses for the trial, including Barker, a number of other students, Jena High teachers and staff and medical personnel from LaSalle General.

Robert Bailey Jr. also was scheduled for jury trial Monday, but a continuance requested last week by his attorney had been granted by the judge.

Trial dates haven't been set for Carwin Jones and Bryant Purvis. If found guilty on all charges, all of the boys could face 25 to 100 years in prison. The sixth boy's case is being handled by juvenile court, and records weren't available.

The Jena Six have garnered national attention by both media and civil rights groups.

An article in Sunday's Chicago Tribune with the headline "Racial demons rear heads" documented issues the school and city have been facing since September -- including the hanging of nooses on school grounds that some parents of the "Jena Six" said started the whole ordeal.

During a "peace rally" earlier this month, Marcus Jones, Bell's father, said "it's all about those nooses" and said the charges are racially motivated.

The three boys accused of hanging the nooses -- all white -- were given a three-day suspension and faced no criminal charges, Jones said. Fights leading up to the December fight at the school weren't handled in this manner -- with attempted murder charges, he said.

"But this fight, with black boys against a white boy, there are attempted murder charges," Jones said. "There are racial tensions, and it started with those nooses."

King Downing, national coordinator for the American Civil Liberties Union's Campaign Against Racial Profiling, said the organization is committed to supporting the "Jena Six" throughout the trial process.

"We want justice for these young men and their families," he said. "We want to clear the air and know for certain if these boys were overcharged and see if there are any disparities in justice in LaSalle Parish."

Downing said he has been encouraging the families to stay positive and strong.

"There is a smell in the air," he said. "We have not completely identified it, but we are trying to make sure it isn't the smell of injustice. ... I think the world's attention on Jena is growing. And I hope anything out of order gets in order quickly."

After the continuance was granted, Theodore McCoy, Shaw's father, said he was disappointed.

"We were hoping to get this under way," he said. "I know (Theodore) is more frustrated than me. I can't imagine what he's going through. The charges are outrageous. We are just ready to put this behind us."

The truth is the Distict Attorney needs to be recused from this case for the following statement.hlr At a school assembly soon after, La Salle Parish District Attorney (DA) Reed Walters, appearing with local police officers, warned Black students against further unrest. “I can make your lives disappear with a stroke of my pen,” he threatened. Threat in article in the Indypendent

Jena is a town of 2,900, with about 350 black residents. Three white students were suspended from Jena High in September after hangman's nooses were found dangling from a tree on campus.
"Information included below was gathered through a review of local print media, as well as discussions with staff members at a local radio station that is covering the story and the parents of three of the youth involved. "

"On the morning of Friday, September 1, 2006, the students at Jena High School arrived at school to find two hangmans nooses dangling from a tree on campus. The nooses were hung in response to an exchange that had taken place the day before during a school-wide assembly. According to news reports, a Black student stood up during the assembly and asked the school principal, Mr. Scott Windham, whether he and the other Black students could get permission to sit beneath a particular tree during lunch, along with the white students who sat there on a daily basis.

Mr. Windham informed the students that they could sit wherever they wanted during lunch. Apparently, this did not sit well with some of the white students. After investigating the incident, three white students were identified as having been involved in hanging the nooses from the tree following the assembly. The students were then suspended for three days and sent to an alternative school pending their expulsion hearings. The principal, Mr. Windham, subsequently recommended that the three white students be expelled from the school. However, his recommendation was overridden by LaSalle Parish Schools Superintendent Roy Breithaupt."
No Charges were filed in the noose incident.Black Teen Guilty.

Still-The Infamy of Injustice:In the Undertow

2007-04-23T13:54:00.000-05:00

PLESSY-FERGUSON 2007
UPDATED-7May2007-2:17CST-hlr

[Keith Weldon]Medley, also on hand for the Supreme Court gathering, said there are many ironies in the Plessy saga.

One of them, he said, is the fact that the Supreme Court building sits on land formerly occupied by an extension of Exchange Alley, where the plan that included Homer Plessy's arrest was hatched in the office of black lawyer Louis Martinet.
Know wonder present Chief Justice Pascal Calogero is firmly against moving the Supreme Court in New Orleans to Baton Rouge. The routes of american judicial injustice emanates from the 400 Royal Street headquarters of the Louisiana Supreme Court. hlr

The following opinion article appeared in the Alexandria Town Talk the weekend of April 21, 2007

Our view: La. gives judge only one choice: Don't prosecute

It's a busy spring weekend in Central Louisiana: a French film festival, a jazz festival and Jazz on the River, an outdoor market, trade days, a big garage sale, a wild night at the zoo, a festival in Magnaville and much more. Check out the Day-by-Day calendar in the Friday A.M. section. Elsewhere in the news, prosecution of criminal suspects in New Orleans was stopped for lack of adequate representation; and the Louisiana Road Home management company can be fined if it fails to move faster to meet with applicants and resolve complaints. Our views follow:

State Judge Arthur Hunter stopped the prosecution of 42 suspects in New Orleans because the city's indigent defender's office cannot adequately represent them.
Hunter set a hearing for May 7 for 45 other defendants whom he said are poor and cannot get adequate representation. Hunter's order did not dismiss the charges.

State Rep. Danny Martiny, chairman of a legislative task force on indigent defense, said he's filing a bill that would set up a statewide indigent defense board, replacing the state's 41 local boards.
"Right now, there are no unified standards, no accountability. If this bill passes, that would change," said Martiny, R-Kenner.

Last year, lawmakers doubled state funding for indigent defense statewide, from $10 million to $20 million annually. Martiny said he expects the Legislature to approve an additional $7 million for indigent defense this year.

We think: This is a step in the right direction, even if it is much too small and nowhere near aggressive enough. Uniform guidelines, more attorneys, adequate compensation for defenders, funds for detectives and DNA tests -- all have been missing forever in Louisiana, the poster child for states that deny people their legal rights. Access to qualified legal representation is codified in the documents that made this nation. Too often, poor people never get to exercise that right. In Orleans Parish alone, between $7 million and $10 million a year more is needed to provide such defense.

The company managing the Louisiana Road Home program will lose up to $100,000 a month if it fails to move faster to meet with applicants, make grants and resolve disputes. The new requirement has been added to the state's contract with ICF International Inc. of Virginia.
ICF is being paid more than $750 million by the state to administer the program -- a poorly thought-out plan to get hurricane evacuees back on their feet. The fact the contract has virtually no benchmarks to measure progress tells you this deal made by Democrat Gov. Kathleen Blanco is fraught with problems and no accountability.

We think: What's $100,000 a month to ICF? It has $19 million of our state money allocated just to reimburse its employees for their Road Home-related travel. The proposed fine is peanuts.

120-Day Wait-in-Jail Urged For Louisiana Suspects!Legislation currently on tap when session begins April 30, 2007, would affect the entire state. The state House bill is sponsored by Rep. Scalise.