The attorney for a teenager whose conviction as an adult in a racially charged schoolyard beating was overturned last week has filed motions to have him released from jail, or at least moved to a juvenile facility, while the prosecutor appeals.
“It’s my opinion that he should be out of jail now, but at the very least he should not be in an adult correctional facility,” Bob Noel, attorney for Mychal Bell, said Monday.
On Friday, the Third Circuit Court of Appeal in Lake Charles said Bell, who was 16 at the time of the December beating of a school mate at Jena High School, should not have been tried as an adult in the case.
Bell is one of six black Jena students charged in the attack on Justin Barker, who is white. Bell and four others were originally charged as adults with attempted second-degree murder, charges that were widely criticized as overly harsh. A fifth person was charged in the alleged assault as a juvenile.
Charges were eventually reduced for Bell to aggravated second-degree battery, still a felony carrying up to 15 years in prison. However, while teens in Louisiana can be charged as adults for some violent crimes, the battery charge is not one of them and Bell’s conviction could not stand, the appeal court said.
Bell has been jailed since January, unable to meet the $90,000 bond set for him.
In a statement, LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters said he will appeal the ruling to the Louisiana Supreme Court “after I review the decision thoroughly.”
