[Ppnews] Teen's conviction tossed in La. beating

[Political Prisoner News]

Teen's conviction tossed in La. beating

http://www.mercurynews.com/nationworld/ci_6896217


By JANET McCONNAUGHEY Associated Press Writer
Article Launched: 09/14/2007 02:30:23 PM PDT

NEW ORLEANS­A state appeals court on Friday threw 
out the only remaining conviction against one of 
the black teenagers accused in the beating of a 
white schoolmate in the racially tense north Louisiana town of Jena.

Mychal Bell, 17, should not have been tried as an 
adult, the state 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal said 
in tossing his conviction on aggravated battery, 
for which he was to have been sentenced Thursday. 
His conspiracy conviction in the December beating 
of student Justin Barker was already thrown out by another court.

Bell, who was 16 at the time of the beating, and 
four others were originally charged with 
attempted second-degree murder. Those charges 
brought widespread criticism that blacks were 
being treated more harshly than whites following 
racial altercations involving Jena High.

Civil rights leaders, including the Revs. Jesse 
Jackson and Al Sharpton, had been planning a 
rally in support of the teens for the day Bell was to have been sentenced.

Teenagers can be tried as adults in Louisiana for 
some violent crimes, including attempted murder, 
but aggravated battery is not one of those crimes, the court said.

Defense lawyers had argued that the aggravated 
battery case should not have been tried in adult 
court once the attempted murder charge was reduced.

The case "remains exclusively in juvenile court," the Third Circuit ruled.




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