London, England (CNS) - David Bowie has donated $10,000 to a legal defense fund for six African American teenagers who have been charged with crimes related to their alleged involvement in the assault of their white classmate in Jena, Louisiana, in December last year. The fund was set up by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to help pay attorney fees.
"There is clearly a separate and unequal judicial process going on in the town of Jena. 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," the 60-year-old singer said in a statement on his Web site.
With that Bowie joins several civil rights leaders like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who have claimed that the arrests and subsequent charges were racially motivated.
In June, one of the teens, Mychal Bell was found guilty of second degree battery, but that decision was overturned by an appeal court on the grounds that Bell, who was 16 at the time of the incident, should not have been tried as an adult in the first place. Bell however remains in jail being unable to post the $90,000 bond set.
Meanwhile, thousands of protesters are expected to march through the streets of Jena on Thursday in protest of the case and racial tension in the area.
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