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October 3, 2007
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Page B3
L aw & J ustice
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Probe and Pardon in Jena 6 ’ Case Wanted
For separate,
unequal justice
The Congressional Black Cau
cus asked the Justice Department
to investigate possible civil-rights
violations in the "Jena 6” case that
sparked a massive protest in Loui
siana.
“This shocking case has focused
national and international attention
on what appears to be an unbeliev
able example of the separate and
unequal justice that was once com
monplace in the Deep South," the
group of 43 lawmakers said in a
letter last week to Acting Attorney
General Peter Keisler.
Justice Department spokesman
Brian Roehrkasse said the depart
ment has been closely monitoring
the case of six black high-school
teens arrested for beating a white
classmate in Jena, La. He said the
department also is investigating al
legations of threats against the stu
dents and their families.
Top Justice officials were set to
discuss the case on Friday with
civil rights leaders, including the
Rev. Jesse Jackson and National
Urban League President Marc
‘Jen a 6 ' d e fe n d a n t Mychal Bell is finally re le a se d from jail and
walks out o f the facility with his attorneys on Thursday after
several w e e k s o f c o n fin e m e n t while his c a s e w as co n sidered
by a district attorney.
the charge was reduced from at
tempted murder.
Bell was one of six Jena High
School students arrested after a
December attack on a white stu
dent. Justin Barker, and the only
one to be tried. He was tried as an
Mortal.
The caucus also sent a separate
le tte r ask in g L o u isia n a G ov.
Kathleen Blanco to pardon 17-year-
old Mychal Bell, the black teen
convicted in adult court of aggra
vated second-degree battery after
adult and convicted of aggravated
second-degree battery after the
charge was reduced from attempted
murder. A state appeals court re
cently threw out his conviction,
saying he could not be tried as an
adult.
District Attorney Reed Walters
said Thursday that he would not
appeal that decision and would let
a juvenile court deal with the case.
Late Thursday, Bell was released
on $45,000 bail.
The black lawmakers call the
decision to charge Bell and his
classmates as adults "an abuse of
prosecutorial discretion" and claim
no action was taken in a recent
similar case involving a white de
fendant and a black victim.
More than 20,000 people con
verged on the small town last week
to protest the case, accusing local
officials of prosecuting blacks more
harshly than whites.
The case dates to August 2006,
when a black Jena High School
student asked the principal whether
blacks could sit under a shade tree
that was a frequent gathering place
for whites. He was told yes, but
nooses appeared in the tree the
next day.
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Rights Violated by Feds in Mayfield Case
191 people. The FBI said the print under the Foreign Intelligence Sur
matched Mayfield's. He was released veillance Act violated the Fourth
about two weeks later when the FBI Amendment’s guarantee against
admitted it had erred in saying the unreasonable search and seizure.
fingerprints were his.
Aiken agreed with Mayfield, re
Before his arrest, the FBI put peatedly criticizing the govern
Mayfield under 24-hour surveil ment.
lance, listened to his phone calls
“For over 200 years, this Nation
and surreptitiously searched his has adhered to the rule of law —
home and law office.
with unparalleled success. A shift
The federal government later to a Nation based on extra-consti
apologized and settled part of the tutional authority is prohibited, as
lawsuit for $2 million. But as part well as ill-advised," she wrote.
of the settlement. Mayfield retained
By a sk in g her to d ism iss
the right to challenge parts of the Mayfield’s lawsuit, the judge said,
Patriot Act, which greatly expanded the U.S. attorney general's office
the authority of law enforcers to was “asking this court to, in es
investigate suspected acts of ter sence, amend the Bill of Rights, by
giving it an interpretation that
rorism.
Mayfield claimed that secret would deprive it of any real mean
searches of his house and office ing. This court declines to do so."
Court sides with
falsely accused
Muslim convert
(AP - Two provisions of the
USA Patriot Act are unconstitu
tional because they allow search
warrants to be issued without a
showing of probable cause, a fed
Brandon M ayfield
eral judge in Portland ruled in a
lawsuit filed by a Portland attorney and searches of American citizens
who was falsely accused with ter without satisfying the probable
rorism.
cause requirements o f the Fourth
U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken Amendment.”
ruled Sept. 26 that the Foreign In
Brandon Mayfield, a M uslim con
telligence Surveillance Act, as vert, was taken into custody on May
amended by the Patriot Act, “now 6, 2(X)4, because of a fingerprint
permits the executive branch of found on a detonator at the scene of
government toconduct surveillance the Madrid train bombing that killed
■MMMN
(AP) - More than three times as
many black people live in prison
cells as in college dorms, the gov
ernment said in new report.
“It’s one of the great social and
economic tragedies of our time,"
said Marc Mortal, president and
CEO of the Urban League. “It
points to the signature failure in
our education system and how
w e’ve been raising our children.”
There are a lot of reasons why
black students do not reach college
at the same rate as whites, said
Amy Stuart Wells, a professor of
sociology and education at Colum
bia University’s Teachers College.
Black students are more likely
to attend segregated schools with
high concentrations of poverty, less
qualified teachers, lower expecta
tions and a less demanding cur
riculum, she said.
“And they are perceived by so
Local Attorney Honored
A local attorney with a
record of commitment to
civil rights was recently
h o n o re d
by
the
Multnomah Bar Associa
tion for his lifetime work
in the legal profession.
Carl R. Neil received
the group's highest honor Carl R.
for professionalism during an
awards luncheon at the Governor
Hotel.
In 1966, Neil traveled to Missis
sippi to serve as volunteer counsel
to victimsof civil-rights violations
Neil
He has handled civil lib
erty cases for the Ameri
can Civil Liberties Union
and currently serves on
the board of directors for
the Urban League of Port
land. He also volunteers
with Legal Aid Services
of O regon's Senior and
N eig h b o rh o o d
Law
Projects.
Neil received his law degree
from Columbia Law School in 1958
and was in the lop 10 percent of his
graduating class.
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ciety as terrible schools, so it is for minorities hasn't yielded results. Mortal said.
But, he added, minority students
hard to get accepted into college," He said conservatives blame a lack
Wells said. “Even if you are a high- of family values while liberals blame also need more early childhood
achieving kid who beats the odds, a lack of government programs, with education, longer school days,
you are less likely to have access to neither side seeing the whole pic longer school years and more mean
ingful summer-job opportunities.
the kinds of courses that colleges ture.
“We need to get serious about
are looking for.”
“We do. in the African-Ameri
Students who don't graduate can community, need to instill a true investment on the front end,"
high school are much more likely stronger value on education," Mortal said.
to go to prison, said Gary Orfield,
co-director of the Civil Rights
Project at UCLA.
Nearly 40 percent of inmates
lack a high-school diploma or the
equivalent, according to the census
data.
“The criminal economy is one
of the only alternatives in some of
these places," Orfield said. "You
basically have the criminalization
of a whole community, particu
larly in some inner cities."
Blacks made up 41 percent of
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jail inmates in 2(X)6. Non-Hispanic
whites made up 37 percent and
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Mortal, who is a former mayor j
of New Orleans, said the political |
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More minorities
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