Mychal Bell of Jena 6 remains in jail

JENA, La., Sept. 21 (UPI) -- A Louisiana judge refused Friday to release Mychal Bell, the only jailed member of the group of black teenagers known as the Jena 6.

The defense filed a writ of habeas corpus in an effort to get him out of jail, The Chicago Tribune reported.

An appeals court overturned Bell’s conviction for aggravated battery, ruling that he should have been tried as a juvenile. He was 16 when he and the other five teenagers allegedly beat up a white student at Jena High School.

The case has recently gained national attention. On Thursday, thousands of demonstrators converged on Jena, on what had been scheduled to be Bell’s sentencing day.

The beating followed weeks of racial tension that began when black students sat under a tree on the high school campus that had customarily been a place for whites only to gather. The next day, white students hung three nooses from the tree.