Here’s how the story of Brandon’s death was related on an East Texas radio station:

• A Lamar County man was killed Tuesday morning by an apparent hit and run driver. The Department of Public Safety says Brandon McClelland, 24 of Paris, was walking along FM-2648 in Powderly when an unknown vehicle
  struck him. State Trooper Timothy Keel is investigating.

The incident was reported in the Paris News (which has removed their archives for Sept. 15-18) as a hit and run.  Brandon’s family was told by local authorities that it was a hit and run.  I was contacted by someone close to the situation on Thursday September 18.  Here’s what I was told about the details of the incident:

• On Monday night, Sept. 15, Brandon was picked up in a truck from his home by two white guys he had previously hung out with — Shannon Fendley and Ryan Crossley (spelling not confirmed). Again, they are both white boys that he knew, and he does not have a vehicle of his own.
  
• They stopped by a local beer/wine store in Toco where Brandon chatted with a white female store clerk that was a friend of his. She saw Brandon with both boys and saw him leave with them. I don’t know  afternoon that they found blood on one of the pickup trucks owned by one of the white suspects, and that they would be issuing arrest warrants for the white men.

• There are no more eye witnesses after that. Brandon was found dead the following morning on FM 2468 in Powderly, Texas around 5 am. His family was told that he was possibly the victim of a hit and run accident … perhaps by a gravel truck.

The next day, I began calling people in Paris, but more so people outside of Paris who I thought could objectively find out more about what was going on.  Here are some of the things that were shared with me anecdotally.  This information has not been confirmed:

• Shannon Fendley was arrested in 2003 in conjunction with a shooting that took place in a park in Paris. He was defended by Lamar County District Attorney Gary Young, and got off with a mild sentence. I was told that he did serve a small sentence, and while in jail teamed up with a White Supremacist group for which he allegedly has an affiliation tattoo on his chest.

• The Texas Rangers got involved on monday (Sept. 22) and began a criminal investigation. They told the family on monday afternoon that they found blood on one of the pickup trucks owned by one of the white suspects, and that they would be issuing arrest warrants for the white men.

• It’s not clear whether race was a contributing factor here. Brandon was close friends with one of the white guys (shannon finley), and in fact brandon did time in prison on a perjury conviction because he refused to divulge information he had about a killing shannon committed (shannon served a sentence for manslaughter for that case).

So as African-American Political Pundit shares, Dallas’ CBS 11 ran a story on this horrible murder.  In the story they report that Brandon’s body was found on the side of a road outside Paris on September 16th. Family members were told he was hit by a vehicle and dragged 60-feet.

There’s no doubt that law enforcement knew the magnitude of this crime from the early stages.  According to a source, the funeral director who picked up Brandon’s body at the scene of the crime was told by a local Justice of the Peace to “soothe this over” because Paris doesn’t need any more negative racial attention.  The sheriff’s department would have known full well that FM 2648 would be a strange place for anyone to be walking late at night, so to suggest a hit and run made it iffy from the start.

There’s more to this story, but in a post Shaquanda Cotton/Jena 6 world cases like this one will be under more scrutiny on the front end rather than trying to clean up afterwards.  On a personal note, I think this case will be hard to try as a hate crime because of the relationships that were present. 

The focus should be making sure that the perpetrators of this heinous crime receive the maximum penalty for their part in this crime. I have no doubt that race played a factor in the violent manor with which they killed Brandon, but the original murder seemed to stem from something else. Anything less than the maximum penalty is unacceptable.  When a District Attorney has allegedly represented one of the suspects in a prior case, how unbiased can a Lamar County court be?

I pray that God will bless Brandon’s family and bring forth justice in this case.

NEW ORLEANS

Ruling in a racially explosive case that some forensic experts have described as police torture, a grand jury in the small Louisiana town of Winnfield indicted a white police officer Wednesday on charges of manslaughter and official malfeasance for repeatedly shocking a handcuffed black suspect with a Taser device, resulting in the man’s death due to cardiac arrest.

After two days of closed testimony, Winn Parish District Atty. Chris Nevils announced that the grand jury had indicted Scott Nugent, 21, for the death in January of Baron “Scooter” Pikes, 21, while in police custody. Two other Winnfield police officers who were present during the incident were not charged.

Nugent, who was fired from the police force in May, could face up to 45 years in prison if convicted on the charges. He surrendered to sheriff’s deputies immediately after the indictment was issued, a spokesman for Nevils said, and a $45,000 bond was set.

“It is our intention to show at trial that Mr. Nugent caused the death of Baron Pikes by ‘Tasing’ him multiple times, unnecessarily and in violation of Louisiana law, and by failing to get him medical attention when it was apparent he needed it,” Nevils said in a statement. “In a civilized society, abuse by those who are given great authority cannot be tolerated.”

Pikes, wanted on a drug possession warrant, was apprehended and handcuffed Jan. 17 after a foot chase. Although Nugent’s police report of the incident stated that Pikes did not resist or struggle after being handcuffed, the officer administered nine 50,000-volt Taser shocks to Pikes’ body after he was slow to respond to Nugent’s order to stand up.

Witnesses said Pikes pleaded with Nugent to stop Tasering him. But within 39 minutes after he was first subdued, Pikes was dead.

Winnfield police claimed that Pikes told them during the incident that he suffered from asthma and was high on PCP and crack cocaine. But Winn Parish Coroner Dr. Randolph Williams found no evidence of such drugs in Pikes’ system or any sign that he suffered from asthma. He ruled Pikes’ death a homicide and noted that Pikes was unconscious when the last two Taser shocks were administered, after he had been loaded into a squad car and delivered to the police station.

Both Williams and Dr. Michael Baden, a nationally prominent forensic pathologist who reviewed the case, said the incident “could be considered to be torture.”

The Pikes’ case, first recounted in the Tribune in July, aroused fears of a cover-up among family members and civil rights groups because Winnfield, the birthplace of Louisiana Govs. Huey and Earl Long, has a long history of political corruption.

Nevils’ predecessor as district attorney committed suicide amid allegations that he had skimmed $200,000 from his office accounts and demanded payoffs from criminal suspects. The former police chief, who was Nugent’s father, also killed himself, after losing a close election campaign marred by fraud allegations. The current police chief was convicted of drug possession as a young man and was pardoned by former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, who is now serving a federal prison sentence for corruption while in office.

It’s time for law agencies across the country to revisit the use of this device.  The rate at which African-Americans are subject to taser shocks seems out of whack to say the least.  But a revision in the Use of Force Continuum could make this deadly tool less likely to be used as an instrument of torture and retaliation.

As documented here by way of Electronic Village, the use of force continuum provides law enforcement with a guide of how much force to use against a resisting subject.  Those guidelines go as follows:

Level One * Officer Presence

Level Two * Verbal Commands

Level Three * Empty Hand Control

Level Four * Pepper Spray, Baton, Taser

Level Five * Less Lethal

Level Six * Deadly Force

My suggestion would be that law enforcement consider moving the Taser away from level 4 and creating a 7th level.  The new continuum might look like this:

1) Officer Presence - 2) Verbal Commands - 3) Empty Hand Control - 4) Pepper Spray/Baton - 5) Less Lethal Force - 6) Taser - 7) Lethal Force

The reason for this change would be that tasers have been shown to be quite lethal.  Taser Nation reports that there have been  360 people to die in North America as a result of tasers since 2001.  Truth Not Tasers posts a lists 363 individuals that they report have been killed by tasers.  Here is a list of 46 people that they say have died in 2008 from tasers, which includes a recent death in Dallas.

318. January 2, 2008: Brandon Smiley, 27, Mobile, Alabama
319. January 5, 2008: Ryan Rich, 33, Las Vegas, Nevada
320. January 9, 2008: Otis C. Anderson, 36, Fayetteville, North Carolina
321. January 11, 2008: Xavier Jones, 29, Coral Gables, Florida
322. January 15, 2008: Mark Backlund, 29, New Brighton, Minnesota
323. January 17, 2008: Baron Pikes, 21, Winnfield, Louisiana
324. January 18, 2008: Daniel Hanrahan, 44, Staten Island, New York
325. February 3, 2008: Louis Cryer, 32, Port Arthur, Texas
326. February 3, 2008: Joseph Davis, 50, Brandon, Mississippi
327. February 7, 2008: Richard Earl Abston, 53, Merced, California
328. February 19, 2008: Garrett Sean Farn, 41, Bakersfield, California
329. February 26, 2008: Barron Harvey Davis, 44, Mayes County, Oklahoma
330. March 4, 2008: Christopher Jackson, 37, Clay, New York
331. March 6, 2008: Javier Aguilar, 46, Roswell, New Mexica
332. March 18, 2008: Roberto Gonzalez, 24, Chicago, Illinois
333. March 20, 2008: Darryl Wayne Turner, 17, Charlotte, North Carolina
334. March 21, 2008: James Garland, 41, Deerfield Beach, Florida
335. March 29, 2008: Henry Bryant, 35, Indianapolis, Indiana
336. March 30, 2008: Walter Edward Haake Jr., 59, Topeka, Kansas
337. April 2, 2008: Jason Jesus Gomez, 35, Santa Ana, California
338. April 6, 2008: Yvelt Occean, 31, New Kent County, Virginia
339. April 22, 2008: Uriah Samson Dach, 26, Richmond, California
340. April 24, 2008: Kevin Piskura, 24, Cincinnati, Ohio
341. April 24, 2008: Dewayne Chatt, 39, Memphis, Tennessee
342. April 27, 2008: Paul Thompson, 24, Greensboro, North Carolina
343. April 28, 2008: Jermaine Ward, 28, Jackson, Tennessee
344. May 4, 2008: Joe Kubat, 21, St. Paul, Minnesota
345. May 6, 2008: James S. Wilson, 22, Alton, Missouri
346. May 28, 2008: Ricardo Manuel Abrahams, 44, Woodland, California
347. May 31, 2008: Robert Ingram, 27, Raceland, Louisiana
348. June 5, 2008: Willie Maye, 43, Birmingham, Alabama
349. June 6, 2008: Donovan Graham, 39, Meriden, Connecticut
350. June 8, 2008: Quintrell T. Brannon, 25, Vincennes, Indiana
351. June 9, 2008: Tony Curtis Bradway, 26, Brooklyn, New York
352. June 23, 2008: Jeffrey Marreel, 36, Norfolk, Ontario
353. June 24, 2008: Ernest Graves, 26, Rockford, Illinois
354. June 27, 2008: Nicholas Cody, 27, Dothan, Alabama
355. July 2, 2008: Isaac Bass, 34, Louisville, Kentucky
356. July 4, 2008: Othello Pierre, 23, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
357. July 8, 2008: Samuel DeBoise, 29, St. Louis, Missouri
358. July 8, 2008: Carlos Vargas, 42, San Bernardino, California
359. July 14, 2008: Marion Wilson Jr., 52, Houston, Texas
360. July 14, 2008: Deshoun Keyon Torrence, 18, Long Beach, California
361. July 22, 2008: Michael Langan, 17, Winnipeg, Manitoba
362. July 23, 2008: Richard Smith, 46, Dallas, Texas
363. July 26, 2008: Anthony Davidson, Statesville, 29, North Carolina

The uneven use of tasers against African-Americans is alarming and is documented at Tasered While Black.  But a common sense solution by law enforcement could make it more difficult for officers to misuse this deadly weapon.  We must continue to put pressure on the agencies involved until the changes are made.

Well there have been more cases of taser abuse across the nation as of late, and Howard Witt of the Chicago Tribune details another such instance. In his article Taser death ignites racial tension, Witt chronicles an incident that occurred in a small Louisiana town.

• At 1:28 p.m. last Jan. 17, Baron “Scooter” Pikes was a healthy 21-year-old man. By 2:07 p.m., he was dead.
  What happened in the 39 minutes in between–during which Pikes was handcuffed by local police and shocked nine times with a Taser device, while reportedly pleading for mercy–is now spawning fears of a political cover-up in this backwoods Louisiana lumber town infamous for backroom dealings.

• Even more ominously, because Pikes was black and the officer who repeatedly Tasered him is white, racial tensions over the case are mounting in a place that’s just 40 miles from Jena, La. Jena is the site of the racially explosive prosecution of six black teenagers charged with beating a white youth that last year triggered one of the largest American civil rights demonstrations in decades. And in a bizarre coincidence, Pikes turns out to have been a first cousin of Mychal Bell, the lead defendant in the Jena 6 case.

• Here in the birthplace of two of Louisiana’s most colorful and notorious governors-Huey and Earl Long-the police chief committed suicide three years ago after losing a close election marred by allegations of fraud and vote-buying.
  Just four months later, the district attorney killed himself after allegedly skimming $200,000 from his office budget and extorting payments from criminal defendants to make their cases go away.

• An autopsy determined there were no drugs in Pikes’ system and that he did not have asthma, according to Dr. Randolph Williams, the Winn Parish coroner.

• Moreover, Pikes did not resist arrest, and he was handcuffed while lying on the ground, according to Nugent’s police report of the incident. It was only after Pikes refused Nugent’s command to stand up that the officer applied the first Taser shock in the middle of his back, Nugent wrote.

• Only after Pikes was carried into the police station and slumped into a chair did police call for an ambulance. He was pronounced dead soon afterward at the local hospital.

If you are unfamiliar with the dangers of taser guns, please visit African American Political Pundits excellent Tasered While Black website.

Earlier this year, Electronic Villager outlined the Use of Force Continuum used by many police forces to subdue suspects. That list looks something like this:

Level One * Officer Presence

Level Two * Verbal Commands

Level Three * Empty Hand Control

Level Four * Pepper Spray, Baton, Taser

Level Five * Less Lethal

Level Six * Deadly Force

We back the blue here at Dallas South, no doubt. But there are those out there wearing the badge who give good cops a bad name on a daily basis. Many are those who use tasers when less lethal options are available.

But I would argue that many uniformed officers are unaware of the true dangers of tasers. They probably don’t know -as AAPP and CBC News point out- that 1/3 of taser subjects end up needing medical attention.

I will argue, more coherently at a later date, that the use of force continuum needs a 7th step. Pepper Spray, Batons, and Tasers are not created equal. Stun guns need there own level, just before deadly force. In the case of Baron Pikes and others, the use of a taser was lethal.

Texas has more wrongful convictions proven by DNA evidence than any other state in the country, and of the 32 in the state, 19 were overturned in Dallas County.

A press conference will immediately precede the first discussion.

What: Panel Discussion: Wrongful Convictions and DNA Exonerations

Date: Saturday, July 19

Time: 4:00 – 4:15 PM – Press Conference

4:15 – 5:00 PM – Panel One – Discussion featuring three Dallas exonorees

5:00 – 6:00 PM – Panel Two – Discussion featuring Michigan Congressman John Conyers, State Senator Rodney Ellis, District Attorney Craig Watkins and Jeff Blackburn of the Innocence Project of Texas

Location: Cedar Valley College Performance Hall, 3030 North Dallas Ave., Lancaster, TX 75134

NOTE: The press conference will be held in the adjacent gallery space.

• (Johnson) enlisted in the Army right out of high school in 2003 and was sent to Iraq, where she died. When the Army returned her mutilated body to her grieving parents as a suicide, her dad, Dr. John Johnson, said to himself and the Army coroner, “Somebody murdered my daughter and you picked the wrong person to fuck with.”

• When LaVena’s father finally brought himself to look at his daughter’s corpse in 2005, sent home from Iraq with a report that she’d committed suicide by shooting herself in the left side of her head with an M-16 — which, by the way, is not a handgun but a relatively long rifle, he thought there was something wrong.

• Private LaVena Johnson’s nose was broken, teeth were loose, one eye was concave and there were abrasions over her body. The supposed M-16 hole to the head was far too small for the revolver-sized exit wound, and was on the wrong side of her skull for a right-handed woman to have pulled the trigger. Her genital area showed evidence of acid, perhaps used to destroy DNA evidence. She had white military gloves glued to her burned hands.

• Since then, the Army has continued to insist that the LaVena committed suicide by pointing her rifle with her non-dominant hand at the side of her head and set herself on fire, all after she beat herself up and poured acid on her genitals (since their was no apparent investigation into whatever happened there). Oh, and there was a trail of blood leading away from the tent where her body was found.

For more visit www.lavenajohnson.com
Gina has laid out the first steps that we can take while we wait for the word about this tragic tale to get out. We must first contact our congressional representatives and ask them to petition the Department of Defense. Fill out a Privacy Act Release Form which gives these representatives the authority to act your behalf. They can then ask that the Army reopen this case.

If you live in House District No. 30 like myself and Eddie Bernice Johnson is your Congressperson then you can click here for the Privacy Act Release Form to send to her office.

For all Texans, click here to get the form for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchision, and here for Sen. John Cornyn.

I have already faxed my inquiry to Congresswoman Johnson and plan to contact the Senators tomorrow. I suggest all of you do the same for your representatives. For those who cry foul on the media for the lack of coverage of African-American women who have gone missing or are victims of abuse, here is a chance to make a difference.

I will follow up when I have have something but by all means comment on this post if you hear back before I do.

Today, Partick Waller will become Dallas County’s 18th prisoner exonerated since 2001, widening a dubious lead for having the most such releases in the nation. The Dallas Morning News’ James Ragland says the exonerations give him “mixed feelings.”

In a column in today’s News, James Ragland credits Dallas County’s preservation of DNA evidence -for decades in many cases- equally with current D.A. Craig Watkins’ desire for justice as the reason so many are gaining freedom. While the preservation is key and a major factor, I can’t give much in the way of kudos to the DA’s office.

Before I can get to praise, I share the feelings of John Rolater who Ragland quotes in is article. Rolater once worked for former Dallas District Attorney John Vance and oversaw DNA test requests for D.A. Bill Hill. “It’s a threefold tragedy because it means someone was wrongly convicted, someone who committed a crime got away with it, and the victims don’t get the closure they deserve,” Rolater told the News.

What have Vance and Hill had to say about all this?

The Minnie H. Goodlow Page Section will host the 3-day event chaired by Dr. Mollie A. Williams. All NCNW Dallas Sections have joined together to make the 2008 Texas Unity theme: “Yes We Can” unity conference a success. “Highlights” of the conference include: the Welcome to “Big D” Barbeque Reception, the Sisters Luncheon, and the Bethune Recognition Program, which will culminate on Saturday morning, August 9, 2008, to recognize Bethune Achievers, Life Members and Legacy Life Members of the organization.

Three distinguished women of the community will be recognized. Dr. Mary E. Beck for Education, Ann Williams for Economic Development of the Dallas Black Dance Theater and Dr.Gayle Smith Blair in the field of Health.

The mission of the National Council of Negro Women is to advance opportunities and the equality of life for African American women, their families and communities. NCNW fulfills this mission through research, advocacy, national and community based services and programs in the U.S. and in African countries. NCNW translates its philosophy of public education, community service and advocacy through activities designed to focus on those issues affecting the African American Family, Economic Development, Health and Wellness, Education and Political Empowerment. The national headquarters of NCNW is located in Washington, D.C.

For additional information, please call 214-337-5817.

On September 4th I wrote: One of the main goals of the Day of Blogging for Justice creators was increased media coverage regarding the Jena 6.  Today I saw a piece on Headline News where they spoke to parents on both sides of the issue. 

There is no doubt the Day of Blogging for justice made a tangible difference.  Just two weeks later I appeared in a Howard Witt Chicago Tribune piece and that was most of the nation’s first exposure to Dallas South.  I then appeared on NBC Nightly News and Dallas South instantly went from a local Dallas issue blog to a site that people from around the country were interested in. How I blog has remains the same, but what I blog about has been different.

Consequently the Jena story is not over.  The motion to remove J.P. Muffray from the bench has been tabled.  Hopefully someone less biased can take over the case and give the remaining defendants a chance at a fair trial.

Jena Six Deserve Justice

August 30th, 2007 · 4 Comments

Why does everyone want to convince me that justice is blind? Why do people want to make me believe that the lady with the scale never peaks under that blindfold to take a look at who stands before her awaiting her ruling?

Today, a number of bloggers are writing in support of the Jena 6. By now, most should know who they are, but in case you don’t I’ll give a quick review.

On May 18, Howard Witt wrote an article in the Chicago Tribune that exposed the nation to racial unrest in Jena, Louisiana. It all started when black students at the local high school sat under a tree -after asking permission- whose shade had traditionally been reserved for white students.

According to Mr. Witt’s article the following events occurred following this simple protest by the black students last September:

* The next day three nooses were hanging from the tree

* Once three white students were identified as having hung the nooses on the tree, the school superintendent suspended them for only three days. (The principal had suggested expulsion). The superintendent felt the nooses represented a “youthful stunt.”

* Fights broke out at the high school between black and white students.

* Unknown arsonists set fire to the central wing of the school (November)

* A white youth beat up a black student who showed up at an all-white party

* another young white man pulled a shotgun on three black students at a convenience store

* A group of black students at the high school allegedly jumped a white student on his way out of the gym, knocked him unconscious and kicked him after he hit the floor (December)

* LaSalle Parish district attorney, Reed Walters, opted to charge six black students (hence the Jena 6) with attempted second-degree murder and other offenses (for their involvement in the above incident)

And one thing you rarely see in reports of the “attack” on the white student is that he had allegedly been taunting Black students in support of those who hung the nooses prior to getting into the fight. Observations at the Friends of Justice website further explains the two group altercations that took place:

The assault on a black student at the Fair Barn on Friday night and the fight at Jena High School on Monday morning are mirror images. In the first instance, a white twenty-two year-old initiated the fight with a punch to the face of a black seventeen year-old; at the school, a yet unidentified black student initiated the fight with a punch to the face. In both instances, the assailant’s friends joined the fray instantly. The striking difference is that the white youth responsible for the Friday incident have not been charged while those allegedly responsible for the school fight are facing charges that could send them to prison…

What supporters of the Jena Six are looking for, just like supporters of Tyrone Brown, Gernarlow Wilson, or Kenneth Foster, is justice. Justice meaning equal application of the law. The United States has a history off applying unequal justice.

Why do criminals who commit the same crime under the same circumstances get unequal punishment? Why would one perpetrator be labeled as menace while another is considered a youthful prankster? Why does someone apprehended with crack cocaine receive harsher penalities than someone who is in possession of powder cocaine? I can tell you, the system is flawed beyond measure.

Mychael Bell was the first of the accused students to go on trial. Bell had priors, including battery and damage to property, but 2nd degree attempted murder charges in a school fight are extreme. And why are 5 of the Jena 6 being tried as adults? Anyway, Bell was eventually found guilty of by and all-white jury of second-degree aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit second-degree aggravated battery after the initial chargers were reduced. He now awaits sentencing next month where he faces up to 22 years in prison.

For a country who feels like spreading its brand of democracy throughout the world, how could this be allowed to happen. Other Western countries look at the U.S. in these instances (as well as post Hurricane Katrina), and it’s evident how deeply rooted racism is even in the halls of government. Bell awaits jail while the others await their verdicts, and the white kids who gang fought the black student have crawled under a rock somewhere.

Well every American should be ashamed when a young man’s life could be thrown away for a school fight in which no one was seriously injured. But I have a hard time thinking that America would be shamed by the Jena 6 while Genarlow Wilson still sits in jail for having consensual sex at the age of 17 with a 15 year old girl. Well I’m ashamed.

I would urge the good white citizens of Jena to stand up and be proud of yourselves for reclaiming your racist past. I guess it’s not so much reclaiming as it is proudly displaying it for the country and the world.

Then I would urge America to acknowledge that the country is becoming more and more segregated by the day. And admit that as long as black folks keep to themselves and don’t start trouble (like sitting under a tree reserved for whites) we can all get along just fine.

And I make a final plea to the American media. I’d ask that you raise your right hand and admit under oath that you just don’t give a damn about black people. Your non-coverage of missing black women and children, your demonization of hip hop culture, your initial labeling of Katrina survivors as ‘refugees’ and your daily lynching of black athletes called sports talk radio is evidence of this fact.

The Jena Six deserve justice.

This post was written as part of the Afrosphere Jena 6 Coalition Day of Blogging for Justice.

Howard Witt of the Chicago Tribune reports:

•  Attorneys for the five remaining defendants facing trial in the racially divisive Jena 6 incident in Louisiana presented evidence Friday of what they said was bias on the part of the judge presiding over the cases and sought his removal.

  After more than four hours of testimony, a visiting judge appointed by the state Supreme Court to hear the recusal motion against LaSalle Parish District Judge J.P. Mauffray asked for more evidence and postponed a ruling until at least July.

• Defense attorneys have long asserted that the white-dominated justice system in the small central Louisiana town was biased against their African-American clients: six high school students who were initially charged with attempted murder in the December 2006 beating of a white classmate.

• According to those present during Friday’s hearing, defense attorneys testified that Mauffray had made prejudicial comments to them about their clients on multiple occasions. David Utter, an attorney for defendant Jesse Ray Beard, said Mauffray had labeled the Jena 6 defendants “a violent bunch” and had asserted that “crime has gone down” in the months after the youths were jailed on the beating charges.

Read the rest of Mr. Witt’ report here.