Rocker Donates to Jena 6 Defense Fund
By MARY FOSTER
Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS David Bowie has donated $10,000 to a legal defense fund for six
black teens charged in an alleged attack on a white classmate in the tiny
central Louisiana town of Jena.
The British rocker's donation to the Jena Six Legal Defense Fund was announced
by the NAACP as thousands of protesters were expected to march through Jena on
Thursday in defense of Mychal Bell and five other teens. The group has become
known as the Jena Six.
"There is clearly a separate and unequal judicial process going on in the town
of Jena," Bowie said Tuesday in an e-mail statement. "A donation to the Jena
Six Legal Defense Fund is my small gesture indicating my belief that a wrongful
charge and sentence should be prevented."
Bell was found guilty on second-degree battery charges June 28 by a six-member,
all-white jury. Before the case was overturned by the state 3rd Circuit Court
of Appeal, his sentencing had been set for Thursday.
The court said Bell, who was 16 at the time of the alleged December 2006
beating, shouldn't have been tried as an adult.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who helped organize the march, planned to do his
syndicated radio show from Alexandria on Wednesday, then travel about 35 miles
to Jena in an attempt to visit Bell, who remains in jail because he is unable
to post $90,000 bond.
Sharpton says he expects more than 10,000 marchers.
"We are gratified that rock star David Bowie was moved to donate to the NAACP's
Jena campaign," National Board of Directors Chairman Julian Bond of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said in a
statement. "We hope others will join him."
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