[Ppnews] Jena Six - Charges Are Reduced

[Political Prisoner News]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/04/AR2007090401978.html

Wednesday, September 5, 2007; A05

Charges Are Reduced in Attack on Louisiana Teen

JENA, La. -- Prosecutors on Tuesday reduced the 
attempted-murder charges against two more 
teenagers among the "Jena Six," a group of black 
high school students who were arrested after an attack on a white schoolmate.

Five of the teenagers were originally charged 
with attempted second-degree murder and 
conspiracy to commit murder, carrying sentences 
of as much as 80 years in prison. The sixth faces undisclosed juvenile charges.

Civil rights advocates have decried the charges as unfairly harsh.

Charges against Carwin Jones and Theo Shaw were 
reduced to aggravated second-degree battery and 
conspiracy. That same reduction was made earlier 
for 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Mychal+Bell?tid=informline>Mychal 
Bell, who was tried and found guilty and could be 
sentenced to 15 years in prison at a hearing on Sept. 20.

On Tuesday, Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr. threw out 
Bell's conspiracy conviction, granting a defense 
motion that Bell's June trial should have been 
conducted as a juvenile proceeding. He let the battery conviction stand.

Conspiracy charge dropped against black student 
in Louisiana school beating case

Conspiracy charge dropped against black student 
in Louisiana school beating case
*******************************************************************************************

The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 5, 2007

JENA, Louisiana: A judge dropped one of two 
criminal charges against a black teen convicted 
of assaulting a white student in a 
racially-charged Louisiana school beating case.

The dismissal of the conspiracy to commit 
aggravated second-degree battery charge means 
thatMychal Bell ­ the first of six black teens to 
be tried for the attack on another student at 
Jena High School ­ will face at most 15 years in 
prison instead of 22 1/2 when he is sentenced in 
Sept. 20. The judge refused to dismiss the second 
charge of which Bell was convicted, aggravated second-degree battery.

Earlier Tuesday, a judge had reduced murder 
charges against two of the other teens accused in 
the case. Carwin Jones and Theo Shaw will instead 
face aggravated-second degree murder charges in 
the attack on Justin Barker. The attack followed 
months of racial tension after black students 
found three nooses hanging from a tree at Jena High School.

The students are part of what has become known as 
the "Jena Six." Critics have complained that the 
charges against them are too harsh.

Five of the six were originally charged with 
attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to 
commit that crime, carrying sentences of up to 80 
years in prison. Meanwhile, three white students 
were suspended in the noose incident, but no criminal charges were filed.

Bell, the first of the students to go on trial, 
was 16 when he was charged with Barker's 
attempted murder. That charge was later reduced 
to aggravated second-degree battery after an 
outcry of protest by some in the community.

The judge on Tuesday said a juvenile could not 
face a conspiracy charge and dropped that count, 
the Alexandria Daily Town Talk reported.






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