Angola 3 News: A3 Newsletter: 42 Years and Still Waiting (June 18, 2014)

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

A3 Newsletter: 42 Years and Still Waiting (June 18, 2014)

(New poster by artist César Maxit)

All eyes are on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals as we move into summer.

Most urgently of course, we wake up every day hopeful that the court will choose to affirm Judge Brady's ruling that overturned Albert's conviction for a third time. Although there is no way to know when they will rule, the average decision wait time is 10 months, so we expect word soon, and certainly by early fall.

Meanwhile, the landmark A3 civil case seeking to define long term solitary confinement as cruel and unusual punishment carries on through Robert and Albert since Herman's passing. Final preparation and definite trial dates for the civil case remain frozen pending resolution of two appeals the State has filed with the 5th Circuit contesting two of Judge Brady's recent decisions in A3's favor.
The first appeal seeks to reverse Federal District Court Judge Brady's ruling that prison officials are not eligible for "qualified immunity," a status which would shield them from having to pay damages if they lose the case. The second appeal seeks to reinstitute the invasive, inhumane strip searches Albert endured until Judge Brady ruled them unconstitutional and unnecessary this past January.

Once both appeal rulings are decided, the dates for the trial will be set, taking into consideration how much preparation time each side still needs (at least a few more months), and when the court is able to reschedule. We will keep everyone updated on all fronts as things develop.

Honoring Freedom Fighter Yuri Kochiyama

This month we were deeply saddened by the passing of 93 year-old Yuri Kochiyama, a longtime supporter of political prisoners and all oppressed communities. Deepa Iyer, writing for the Huffington Post, argued that "Yuri Kochiyama's life and legacy is a reminder to Asian Americans and to all those who believe in social justice, of a basic value: To show up whenever and wherever injustice occurs and to engage in acts of resistance and solidarity."

The A3 Coalition's Marina Drummer reflects today:

Yuri was one of my early mentors in getting the A3/anti-solitary effort going and right through to last year there was never a time that I visited her that she didn't ask about Albert and Herman. She was always gracious with her time and her memories and always supportive of the work we did, giving interviews, writing to Herman and Albert, speaking on the case. Yuri had an extraordinary way of making whoever she was with feel very special. She always paid close attention to what her visitors were saying. Herman and Albert always asked about Yuri, as she was their special friend and King always visited her whenever he came to town.

In 2003, Yuri Kochiyama said about the Angola Three:

Despite the fact that one of the Angola Three, Robert King Wilkerson is out, the name will remain the same,the Angola Three. The two that are still left in the infamous Angola Prison, Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox are part of the trio that became recognized for their bold, revolutionary consciousness. The Angola Three aroused the social and political awareness of their inmate comrades in one of the harshest prison environments. The oppressive conditions of Angola did not restrain the Three from organizing a Black Panther party. The Three led campaigns to stop prison rape and improve conditions of the slave plantation. For their boldness, they became targets of the prison administration.

Each of the Angola Three have spent some 31 years behind prison walls; 29 in solitary. Wilkerson has come out, still strong and outspoken; and Wallace and Woodfox are still unbroken and fighting to make prison a more humane place. These kind of warriors must never be forgotten. They have been at the front line of struggle, fighting against the worst kind of brutalities and humiliations. We must get Wallace and Woodfox out!

The A3 Coalition's sponsor, Community Futures Collective is the fiscal sponsor of the Kochiyama family's Yuri Kochiyama Archives Project and donations will be gratefully accepted by the family towards preparing the archives to be deposited in an appropriate institution where students and other researchers will have access to the treasure trove of material she collected over her life time of activism.

Media Coverage: NPR II Huffington Post II NY Times II Washington Post

Keep in touch with Albert:

Albert Woodfox #72148

David Wade Correctional Center

670 Bell Hill Road
Homer, LA 71040

No comments:

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.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

A3 Newsletter: 42 Years and Still Waiting (June 18, 2014)

No comments:

Post a Comment

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