5 Myths of the Jena 6 Story

An extremely informative article by the AP clears up most myths currently being reported about the racial controversy in Louisiana:

1. The so-called "white tree" at Jena High, often reported to be the domain of only white students, was nothing of the sort, according to teachers and school administrators; students of all races, they say, congregated under it at one time or another.
2. Two nooses -- not three -- were found dangling from the tree. Beyond being offensive to blacks, the nooses were cut down because black and white students "were playing with them, pulling on them, jump-swinging from them, and putting their heads through them," according to a black teacher who witnessed the scene.
3. There was no connection between the September noose incident and December attack, according to Donald Washington, an attorney for the U.S. Justice Department in western Louisiana, who investigated claims that these events might be race-related hate crimes.
4. The three youths accused of hanging the nooses were not suspended for just three days -- they were isolated at an alternative school for about a month, and then given an in-school suspension for two weeks.
5. The six-member jury that convicted Bell was, indeed, all white. However, only one in 10 people in LaSalle Parish is African American, and though black residents were selected randomly by computer and summoned for jury selection, none showed up.

The AP story also reveals that one of the black students, Mychal Bell, held for the attack on a white student actually had a previous criminal record, and was "on probation for at least two counts of battery and a count of criminal damage to property". My own question is, which is worse, someone actually thinking about a lynching, or someone actually committing a lynching, as in the December attack?