A Call for Justice, THE ANGOLA 3

“My soul cries from all that
I witnessed and endured.
It does more than cry,
it mourns continuously.”
—Robert Hillary K

WWW.ANGOLA3.ORG

We call for the immediate release of the Angola 3 - three innocent men held in solitary confinement for almost 4 decades for trying to speak out against inhumane treatment and racial segregation.

“Everything legal is not moral; Legality and Morality are not friends..."
—Robert Hillary King
"We are fighting for the people to understand that we were framed for a murder that we are totally and completely, and actually innocent of.”
—Herman Wallace
“I thought that my cause, then and now, was noble. They might bend me a little bit, they may cause me a lot of pain, they may even take my life, but they will never be able to break me.”
—Albert Woodfox

38 years ago, 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.1 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.”2 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.
Robert was released in 2001, but Herman and Albert
remain in solitary, continuing to fight for their freedom.
Despite a number of reforms achieved in the mid-70s,
many officials repeatedly ignore both evidence of
misconduct, and of innocence.
The State’s case is riddled with inconsistencies, obfuscations,
and missteps. A bloody print at the murder
scene does 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.
Potentially exculpatory DNA evidence has been “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 shows 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.3
Even the widow of the victim after reviewing the evidence
believes Herman and Albert’s trials were unfair,
has grave doubts about their guilt, and is calling upon
officials to find the real killer.3
In fact, Albert’s conviction has now been overturned
twice by judges citing racial discrimination, prosecutorial
misconduct, inadequate defense, and suppression of
exculpatory evidence.
Sadly however, AEDPA-gutted habeas laws that limit
federal power recently allowed the U.S. Court of Appeals
to defer judgment to Louisiana, where seemingly
vengeful prosecutors insist Albert is “the most dangerous
person on the planet.”5
In spite of this setback, the validity of Albert’s conviction
is again under Federal Court review due to apparent
discrimination in the selection of a grand jury foreperson,
an injustice that may finally set Albert free.
Although a State Judicial Commissioner similarly recommended
reversing Herman’s conviction based on
new, compelling evidence exposing prosecutorial misconduct
and constitutional violations, the Louisiana
Supreme Court denied his appeal without comment.
Undeterred, Herman has now turned to the Federal
Courts to prove his innocence and win his freedom.
Meanwhile, Louisiana prison officials stubbornly refuse
to release them from solitary because “there’s been no
rehabilitation” from “practicing Black Pantherism.”4
Nearly a decade ago Herman, Albert
and Robert filed a civil lawsuit challenging
the inhumane and increasingly pervasive practice of long-term solitary confinement. Magistrate Judge Dalby
describes their almost four decades of solitary as “durations so far beyond the pale” she could not find “anything even
remotely comparable in the annals of American jurisprudence.” The case, expected to go to trial in 2011, will detail
unconstitutionally cruel and unusual treatment and systematic due process violations at the hands of Louisiana officials.
Angola
“Everything legal is not moral
Legality and morality are not friends ”
—Robert Hillary King
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.5
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.5
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.