David Bowie has donated $10,000 to the defence team for six black teens charged with bashing a white classmate in the Deep South town of Jena, Louisiana.
Known as the Jena Six, the boys are at the centre of an ugly race row. Three white boys were expelled from Jena High School last year when they were found to have hung nooses from an oak tree on the school grounds. A series of altercations allegedly followed, with white student Justin Barker attacked last December.The boys initially faced attempted murder charges, but these were later reduced amid a public outcry. 16-year-old Mychal Bell was tried as an adult, and was found guilty in June on second-degree battery charges by an all-white jury. This was later overturned by a court of appeal, though Bell remains in jail after being unable to post a bond of almost $100,000.
"There is clearly a separate and unequal judicial process going on in the town of Jena," Bowie said on Tuesday. "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."
