Angola 3 News: April Marks 40 Years of Solitary Confinement for Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace

Thursday, April 5, 2012

April Marks 40 Years of Solitary Confinement for Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace

Update from the International Coalition to Free the Angola 3

April 5, 2010

This April we are commemorating what has now been 40 years in solitary confinement for Albert Woodfox & Herman Wallace.

On April 17, Robert King will be joined by Amnesty International and other supporters at the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge to present Amnesty International's petition to Governor Bobby Jindal demanding that Wallace and Woodfox be immediately released from solitary confinement ( view/download the flyer here). A press conference on the front steps of the State Capitol will begin at 2pm. A free bus will be departing New Orleans at 12 noon, from 1212 St. Bernard Ave. Seating is limited, so please call (504) 344-1717 to reserve a place by April 15.

If you have not yet done it, this is your last chance to sign the petition before delivery to Governor Jindal. and sent it to all your friends. We need as many signatures as possible. The deadline to sign it is Tuesday April 10.

This Friday, April 6, we are organizing an event in support of the California hunger strikers and marking the 40 year anniversary, with an appearance by Robert King at UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, co-hosted by the Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal and the Hastings chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. If you are in the area please come and join us. Read more here.

Today, BBC News Magazine released an excellent article about the Angola 3, entitled "Forty Years in Solitary Confinement and Counting," to be aired on Thursday, April 5 at 11:00 BST and Monday, April 9 at 20:30 BST. See also the new Public Radio International article, here.

We've got the wind at our back and need to take full advantage of it. We send our gratitude to Amnesty International, USA, UK and all other European Chapters for their remarkable support and strong campaign effort. Let's do what we can to free all political prisoners and stop the brutal torture of our brothers and sisters in struggle-expand your network and stay in the streets- carpe diem!

*Keep updated by visiting our brand new Free All The Angola 3 facebook page.

Amnesty International's Email Action Alert

Below is the full text of an email action alert sent out yesterday by Amnesty International to its mailing list.

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Two Black men, confined to isolation in tiny cells for the last 40 years. End the "Angola 3" nightmare.

No human being deserves this.

23 hours a day isolated in a small cell, four steps long, three steps across. Three times a week for exercise in an outdoor cage, weather permitting. A few hours every week to shower or simply walk. Rare, fleeting human contact with prison guards, let alone with family.

This describes four decades of existence for Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace in Louisiana, two members of the so-called "Angola 3" who pass their remaining hours "in the hole" to this day.

April 17 will mark 40 years -- 14,600 days -- of their nightmare. The conditions in which these two men are held, as well as the tragically absurd duration of this punishment, violate a host of human rights treaties to which the US is a party, including those covering basic standards for treatment of prisoners. Prisons simply shouldn't operate this way in the US.

Demand an end to the cruel and unnecessary solitary confinement for Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace.

Our goal is to collect 14,600 petition signatures from just this email alone -- one signature for every day each man has spent in isolation. Janina , can we count on your voice?

Woodfox and Wallace may be in isolation, but they are not forgotten. Our calls for justice will ring loud -- on April 17 we'll make sure Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal hears us when we arrive at his Baton Rouge doorstep with tens of thousands of petition signatures in hand.

We can't let more days pass without justice. Herman Wallace is now 70 years old, Albert Woodfox is in his mid-60s, and both men are suffering from serious health problems -- made worse by the appalling deprivation in which they live.

Ill, advancing in age, with clean disciplinary records for the last 20 years -- what is so dangerous about these men that could possibly warrant this inhumane treatment, for so long?

Because the prison authorities see them as a threat. The "Angola 3" organized their fellow prisoners against inhumane treatment and racial segregation in the early 1970s. Angola Prison's warden, Burl Cain, has suggested that Woodfox and Wallace's continued isolation is based on their political activism -- particularly their association with the Black Panthers.

The "Angola 3" case highlights the failings of a Louisiana justice system that is undermined by discrimination. No physical evidence links Woodfox and Wallace to the 1972 murder of a prison guard. Inmate testimony is questionable. And judges who twice overturned Woodfox's conviction for the murder cited racial discrimination, prosecutorial misconduct, and more.

14,600 days in solitary is far too many. But today, we can do something about it -- demand justice for the remaining "Angola 3".

And on April 17, we won't take no for an answer in Baton Rouge!

For justice,

Bryna Subherwal
Individuals at Risk Campaigner
Amnesty International USA

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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.