Officials Faulted in Jena 6 Case

WASHINGTON — Democratic lawmakers denounced federal authorities today for not intervening in the Jena Six case, citing racist noose-hanging incidents far beyond the small Louisiana town where a school attack garnered national attention.The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing with federal officials and community activists examining the case of the six black teenagers charged with the beating of a white student. The incident happened after nooses were hung from a tree on a high school campus there — a symbol of the lynching violence of the segregation era.Democratic lawmakers, many of them black, blasted federal authorities for staying out of the local prosecutor’s case against the six, particularly that of Mychal Bell, who is currently in jail after a judge decided he violated the terms of his probation for a previous conviction.“Shame on you,” Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Democrat of Texas, said to Justice Department officials, directing most of her fury at the U.S. attorney for Louisiana’s western district, Donald Washington.“As a parent, I’m on the verge of tears,” Ms. Jackson Lee said.“Why didn’t you intervene?” she asked repeatedly, raising her voice and jabbing her finger in the air as some in the audience began to applaud.The committee chairman, John Conyers, Democrat of Michigan, called for quiet before Mr. Washington spoke.“I was also offended, I too am an African-American,” Mr. Washington told the panel. “I did intervene, I did engage the district attorney. At the end of the day, there are only certain things that the United States attorney can do.”Following that exchange, Mr. Conyers pointed out he had invited the local district attorney, Reed Walters, to testify, but he declined. At that, some in the audience yelled out, “subpoena him!”Since the Jena case made headlines, there have been a number of other nooses found in high-profile incidents around the country — in a black Coast Guard cadet’s bag, on a Maryland college campus, and, last week, on the office door of a black professor at Columbia University in New York.The Department of Justice has created a task force to handle noose-hanging investigations in five states. It investigated the Jena matter but decided not to prosecute because the federal government typically does not bring hate crimes charges against juveniles, Mr. Washington said.

Officials Faulted in Jena 6 Case

Officials Faulted in Jena 6 Case

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