A group of Atlanta University Center students are enlisting college students from across the country to help push for the ouster of the district attorney in Jena, La.
The students, who attend Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University, are circulating among colleges and universities nationwide a petition that seeks a federal investigation of Louisiana’s criminal justice system and to have LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walter disbarred.
Walter is the prosecutor in the “Jena Six” cases where six Black high school students were initially charged with attempted murder after they beat up a White classmate in December 2006. Some charges have been reduced.
“It shamefully represents a consistent theme of historic injustice in the South,” says the petition, which the students plan to forward to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. “Authorities who feel comfortable abusing their power should have a consequence for their misconduct and violation of the United States justice system.”
The petition demands a reduction in charges for the Jena Six (“to the proper consequences for a fight that only resulted in a minor injury,” the students wrote); a public apology from Jena and Louisiana officials, along with the local school board, to the students and families of the Jena Six; an apology to the American people for “exploiting the justice system and wrongfully abusing their position for personal power.”
“To prevent more injustice, we the people need to voice the adjustments that are necessary within the justice system of Jena, Louisiana,” says the petition.
The situation in Jena stemmed from a Black Jena High School student’s request to sit under a tree that has traditionally only been used by White students. A day later three nooses were found hanging from the tree. That began a series of racially based fights that culminated in the December 2006 altercation. A White student suffered minor injuries.
