NEW ORLEANS —  A state appeals court on Friday threw out the only remaining conviction against one of the black teenagers accused in the beating of a white schoolmate in the racially tense north Louisiana town of Jena.

Mychal Bell, 17, should not have been tried as an adult, the state 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal said in tossing his conviction on aggravated battery, for which he was to have been sentenced Thursday. His conspiracy conviction in the December beating of student Justin Barker was already thrown out by another court.

Bell, who was 16 at the time of the beating, and four others were originally charged with attempted second-degree murder. Those charges brought widespread criticism that blacks were being treated more harshly than whites following racial altercations involving Jena High.

Civil rights leaders, including the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, had been planning a rally in support of the teens for the day Bell was to have been sentenced.

Teenagers can be tried as adults in Louisiana for some violent crimes, including attempted murder, but aggravated battery is not one of those crimes, the court said.

Defense lawyers had argued that the aggravated battery case should not have been tried in adult court once the attempted murder charge was reduced.

The case “remains exclusively in juvenile court,” the Third Circuit ruled.

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Al Sharpton is making another trip to west Memphis Arkansas this weekend to attend a ceremony for the 12 year old boy shot and killed by a West Memphis Police officer. Sharpton first came to town for the funeral of Deaunta Farrow in July. Farrow was shot and killed in June at an apartment complex in West Memphis. Two West Memphis police officers were undercover in the area due to a high number of burglaries. Farrow was with his cousin, police say he was carrying what looked like a real gun. West Memphis Police officer Erik Sammis says he asked the child to drop the gun, when he didn’t he fired the shot that killed Farrow. It turned out the gun the 12 year old had was fake. The incident is being investigated by the FBI, Arkansas State Police and 2 special prosecutors. Farrow’s mother has filed a multi-million dollar wrongful death lawsuit. Sharpton will be in West Memphis Saturday for the re-naming of a street in honor of the young boy. Sunday, he’ll preach at the New Salem Baptist Church in east Memphis.