Tivodan, typing in bold font doesn't make you right. I can see you feel strongly, however.
The fact remains that if the DA could stretch the meaning of 'weapon' to make a tennis shoe constitute one, he could have construed a statute to cover noose hanging as a crime.
Mychel Bell was convicted of agg battery, and conspiracy to commit agg. battery, which requires use of a weapon, facing 20 years. He had been facing 80-100 when he was initially charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit attempted murder.
An appeals court threw out his conviction, stating that he should never have been in adult court. The aggravated battery charge is what bumped him into adult court, thus the appeals court was essentially saying that charge was not appropriate.
Simple battery or assault would have left him in juvenile court where he belongs.
Ruksak, the appeals court was all-white jury too :-), and blacks were offered the opportunity to be a part of the first jury that convicted him, but none showed up. I still see your point, though, that didn't help matters.
I have read about this case from several different viewpoints, and done my best to separate the facts from the spin.
Bell is not a great poster child - he has priors, some claim those are a result of the racist DA, etc., but a black man in Jena was interviewed, and his complaint was that on his side of town, he'd call the police on Bell for disturbances and property damage, and the police would take too long to respond
It doesn't matter to me - I'm not trying to make him a hero or a martyr,,,,,I can just see plain as day that there is a disparity here.