Jason Whitlock has a good rundown of the facts surrounding the Jena 6 case. First off, the connection between the nooses and the attack on the white student, Justin Barker, is doubtful:
A black U.S. attorney, Don Washington, investigated the “Jena Six†case and concluded that the attack on Barker had absolutely nothing to do with the noose-hanging incident three months before. The nooses and two off-campus incidents were tied to Barker’s assault by people wanting to gain sympathy for the “Jena Six†in reaction to Walters’ extreme charges of attempted murder.
And, the all-white jury that convicted Mychal Bell:
Much has been written about Bell’s trial, the six-person all-white jury that convicted him of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery and the clueless public defender who called no witnesses and offered no defense. It is rarely mentioned that no black people responded to the jury summonses and that Bell’s public defender was black.
Bryan at HotAir points out the differences between this case and the Duke lacrosse case, to which many have tried to draw parallels:
This gives us one important distinction between Jena and the Duke case: In Jena, the accused actually did something illegal. The only question is whether they’re facing reasonable or extreme charges, and if the charges are extreme, why that would be the case.
