Angola 3 News: A3 Newsletter: Happy Birthday Herman!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

A3 Newsletter: Happy Birthday Herman!

Happy Birthday Herman!

On October 13th, Herman Wallace will be turning 68, having spent most of his life in solitary confinement. Please Write Herman and wish him Happy Birthday. Write to: Herman Wallace #76759 Elayn Hunt Correctional Center Unit 5, E-Tier PO Box 174 St Gabriel, LA 70776 USA

Herman is optimistic about his appeal now pending at the State Supreme Court, where a decision is expected anytime. On September 19, 2006, State Judicial Commissioner Rachel Morgan recommended overturning Herman's conviction, on grounds that prison officials had withheld evidence from the jury that prison officials had bribed the prosecution's key eyewitness, Hezekiah Brown, in return for his testimony. However, in May 2008, in a 2-1 vote, the State Appeals Court rejected Morgan's recommendation and refused to overturn the conviction. Herman has appealed this to the State Supreme Court, which will either affirm or reverse the lower court's decision.

If you haven't heard them yet, be sure to listen to Herman's many broadcasts at Prison Radio. Listen here.

Kudos To Parnell Herbert!

The new play "Angola 3", written by Parnell Herbert, premiered at Loyola University in New Orleans, LA on September 18. Read the review and interview with Parnell Herbert on pages 10 and 11 of the Data News Weekly here. For more information about this amazing play, read here.

Our Newest Video: Political Prisoners in the United States

Angola 3 News has just released a new interview with author/activist Dan Berger that is mostly based on Berger's essay "The Real Dragons: A Brief History of Political Militancy and Incarceration: 1960s to 2000s," which is featured in the book "Let Freedom Ring: A Collection of Documents from the Movements to Free U.S. Political Prisoners" (PM Press, 2008).

Watch the two-part video interview here. Also, be sure to watch our previous video focusing on death row prisoner Kevin Cooper here.

The Secret World of Deaf Prisoners

In his new article, published by The Crime Report, James Ridgeway writes:

The deaf face a nightmare when they fall into the criminal justice system. They live in a world apart to begin with; but in prison they are thrown into a dread new environment where they literally can't understand the language of either their jailers or the other prisoners. When people who have never heard a spoken word try to speak,the sounds come out jumbled and weird-leading ill-informed jailers to think they are obstreperous or crazy. As a consequence, some deaf prisoners can end up in solitary.

I discovered numerous examples of abuses and violations of the rights of deaf prisoners as part of an ongoing investigative reporting project. But the most troubling discovery I made was how little has been done about the problem in the criminal justice system-and how little is known about it outside prison walls.

Read the full article here.

Fax Jerry Brown Monday October 5! Drop the Charges Against Cisco Torres!

Support Cisco in court Friday, October 9
8am Rally, 9am Court, 850 Bryant Street, San Francisco

The Committee for the Defense of Human Rights writes:

Dear Friends,

Once again we are asking for your help with a phone and fax campaign to demand that CA Attorney General Jerry Brown drop the charges against Francisco Torres, the last of the SF8 still facing prosecution. Brown has not yet dropped the charges against Francisco Torres, but he knows there is no case against him. He needs to get the message from people all over the country that we will not give up this just demand.

Please Take Action Here.

Solitary Confinement is Torture!

The Maine Prisoner Action Coalition has launched an important new campaign to end solitary confinement and other forms of torture in Maine State Prisons.

Over the past three months, concerned Maine citizens have worked to develop appropriate legislation to address longstanding abuses in the segregation units of Maine State Prisons. Last week, Representative Jim Schatz (Blue Hill) submitted the legislation. This is an important step to create the critical dialogue necessary to advocate for true prison reform in this state and end human-rights violations in our correctional facilities. Attached to this email is the bill language in its entirety. READ THE PDF HERE.

Now the Legislative Council will decide whether to accept the bill for the upcoming 2010 legislative session. THEY MAKE THEIR DECISION ON OCTOBER 15th. The Legislative Council comprises of leadership from both the Democratic and Republican parties from both the House and the Senate. Every other year in Maine, the state's legislative session is a "short" or "emergency" session.

Take Action Here.

Check out these new brochures made for the campaign, parts one and two. The Coalition can be contacted at mainepac@gmail.com and 207-252-5379

Journalist Lance Tapley has written an excellent series of articles detailing the numerous abuses in Maine Prisons. Read the full series.

Albert & Herman

Herman Wallace
#76759
Elayn Hunt Correctional Center
Unit 5, D-Tier
PO Box 174
St Gabriel, LA 70776

Albert Woodfox
#72148
CCR, Lower A5
Louisiana State Penitentiary
Angola, LA 70712

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Angola 3 Basics

(Download a flyer version of this fact sheet here.)

In 1972, deep in rural Louisiana, three young black men were silenced for trying to expose continued segregation, systematic corruption, and horrific abuse in the biggest prison in the US, an 18,000 acre former slave plantation called Angola.

Peaceful, non-violent protest in the form of hunger and work strikes organized by inmates caught the attention of Louisiana’s elected leaders and local media in the early 1970s. They soon called for investigations into a host of unconstitutional and extraordinarily inhumane practices commonplace in what was then the “bloodiest prison in the South.” Eager to put an end to outside scrutiny, prison officials began punishing inmates they saw as troublemakers.

At the height of this unprecedented institutional chaos, Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox, and Robert King were charged with murders they did not commit and thrown into 6x9 foot solitary cells where they remained for decades.

Their struggle for justice continued until Robert was released in 2001, Herman in 2013, and Albert in 2016.

Despite a number of reforms achieved in the mid-70s, many officials repeatedly ignored both evidence of misconduct, and of innocence.

The State’s case was riddled with inconsistencies, obfuscations, and missteps. A bloody print at the murder scene did not match Herman, Albert or anyone charged with the crime and was never compared with the limited number of other prisoners who had access to the dormitory on the day of the murder. In 2008, NPR asked Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell why the state refused to test the print. "A fingerprint can come from anywhere," Caldwell explained. "We're not going to be fooled by that."

Potentially exculpatory DNA evidence was “lost” by prison officials—including fingernail scrapings from the victim and barely visible “specks” of blood on clothing alleged to have been worn by Albert.

Both Herman and Albert had multiple alibi witnesses with nothing to gain who testified they were far away from the scene when the murder occurred.

In contrast, several State witnesses lied under oath about rewards for their testimony. The prosecution’s star witness Hezekiah Brown told the jury: “Nobody promised me nothing.” But new evidence showed Hezekiah, a convicted serial rapist serving life, agreed to testify only in exchange for a pardon, a weekly carton of cigarettes, TV, birthday cakes, and other luxuries.

“Hezekiah was one you could put words in his mouth,” the Warden reminisced chillingly in an interview about the case years later.

Notably, Teenie Rogers, the widow of the victim, prison guard Brent Miller, after reviewing the evidence believed Herman and Albert’s trials were unfair, expressed grave doubts about their guilt, and called upon officials to find the real killer. "“Each time I look at the evidence in this case, I remember there is no proof that the men charged with Brent’s death are the ones who actually killed him. It’s easy to get caught up in vengeance and anger, but when I look at the facts, they just do not add up,” said Rogers in 2013.

Herman’s conviction was finally overturned in October 2013 by a Federal Judge. Although his trial was riddled with evidence of prosecutorial misconduct and other constitutional violations, it was the systematic exclusion of women from his jury in violation of the 14th Amendment that freed him. Unfortunately he was released in the late stages of advanced liver cancer and only experienced 3 days of freedom. Sadly for Herman, justice delayed was justice denied.

Albert’s conviction was overturned three times by judges citing racial discrimination, prosecutorial misconduct, inadequate defense, and suppression of exculpatory evidence. While the case worked its way through endless appeals, Louisiana officials refused to release Albert from solitary, even when no longer convicted of the crime, because “there’s been no rehabilitation” from “practicing Black Pantherism.”4

In June 2015, a Federal Judge courageously ordered Albert's immediate release and barred a retrial stressing the “Court's lack of confidence in the State to provide a fair third trial." This extraordinary remedy was also frozen pending yet another series of appeals.

Finally, Albert was released in February of 2016, 43 years and 10 months after first being put in isolation for a crime he didn’t commit.

Louisiana today has the highest incarceration rate in the US—thus the highest in the world.

Three-fourths of the 5,000+ prisoners at Angola are African American. And due to some of the harshest sentencing practices in the nation, 97% will die there.

Reminiscent of a bygone era, inmates still harvest cotton, corn and wheat for 4 to 20 cents an hour under the watchful eye of armed guards on horseback.

We believe that only by openly examining the failures and inequities of the criminal justice system in America can we restore integrity to that system.

We must not wait.

We can make a difference.

As the A3 did years before, now is the time to challenge injustice and demand that the innocent and wrongfully incarcerated be freed.

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

In 2000, Herman, Albert and Robert filed a civil lawsuit challenging the inhumane and increasingly pervasive practice of long-term solitary confinement. Magistrate Judge Dalby described their decades of isolation as “so far beyond the pale” she could not find “anything even remotely comparable in the annals of American jurisprudence.” Over the course of 16 years, this seminal case detailed unconstitutionally cruel and unusual treatment and systematic due process violations at the hands of Louisiana officials and inspired worldwide action to end long term solitary.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

A3 Newsletter: Happy Birthday Herman!

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Enslavement, past and present--from the Middle Passage to US prisons today