The defense team doubted that J.P. Mauffray could render an unbiased decision.

The attorneys for five of the six Black teens accused of assaulting a White schoolmate in Jena, La., two years ago didn’t believe Judge J.P. Mauffray when he said he could deliver a fair verdict in the defendants’ upcoming criminal trial. And neither did the judge appointed by the state Supreme Court to determine whether he should be dismissed for calling the youth’s “trouble-makers” and a “violent bunch. On Friday, Judge Thomas M. Yeager ruled that Mauffray should step down. “The right to a fair and impartial judge is of particular importance in the present cases,” Yeager wrote in his decision. On trial are Jesse Ray Beard, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and Theo Shaw, who now face aggravated second-degree battery charges for allegedly beating Justin Barker on Dec. 4, 2006. Beard is charged as a juvenile. Only one of the so-called “Jena Six” has been tried: Mychal Bell, who was convicted in juvenile court last June of aggravated second-degree battery. Initially, Bell and the other youths were charged with attempted murder, but the prosecutor reduced the charges amid an ocean of criticism from Black leaders and civil libertarians. The case stoked racial tensions in the tiny central Louisiana town, and tens of thousands of protestors, led by the Rev. Al Sharpton, descended upon Jena on Sept. 20. It seems like the case that just won’t go away. “Whatever ultimately happens concerning the judge, this does not mean these cases go away,” District Attorney Reed Walters said. “It will just take longer to get them to trial. However, I may seek to have the decision overturned.” Do you think removing the judge was the right decision?