Angola Three

The Angola Three

Louisiana State Penitentiary, the prison where the Angola Three were confined

The Angola Three are three former prison inmates (Robert King, Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace) who were put in solitary confinement in Louisiana State Penitentiary (also known as Angola Prison), in April 1972 after the killing of a corrections officer. Each was kept in solitary for more than 25 years; two of the men served more than 40 years each in solitary.

Robert King spent 29 years in solitary confinement before his conviction was overturned and he was released.^[1] Wallace was released on October 1, 2013, after more than 41 years in prison. Woodfox's unconditional release was decided on June 10, 2015, after 43 years of solitary confinement. On November 20, 2014, Woodfox had his conviction overturned by the US Court of Appeals, and in April 2015, his lawyer applied for an unconditional writ for his release.^[2][3] Albert Woodfox was released on February 19, 2016, after the prosecution agreed to drop its push for a retrial and accept his plea of no contest to lesser charges of burglary and manslaughter.^[4]

The prisoners have been the subject of two documentary films^[5] and international attention. In July 2013, Amnesty International called for the release of 71-year-old Herman Wallace, who had advanced liver cancer.^[6] He was released October 1, 2013. The state re-indicted him on October 3, 2013,^[7] and he died on October 4, 2013, before he could be re-arrested.^[8]

History

Initial imprisonment

The three men were sent to Angola Prison in 1971 after each was convicted of armed robbery.^[9] Woodfox had escaped from a Louisiana courthouse during his sentencing for armed robbery and joined the Black Panther Party.^[10]

As members of the prison's chapter of the Black Panthers, Wallace and Woodfox became activists seeking to improve conditions in Angola.^[9] They helped organize petitions and hunger strikes to protest segregation within the prison, and to end widespread rape and violence.^[11]

Woodfox and Wallace were convicted of the 1972 stabbing murder of 23-year-old prison guard Brent Miller.^[12] (King was said by authorities to be linked to the murder but was not charged.^[13]) According to a July 2013 press release by Amnesty International, Woodfox and Wallace were "convicted of the murder of a prison guard in 1973, yet no physical evidence links them to the crime – potentially exculpatory DNA evidence has been lost and the testimony of the main eyewitness has been discredited. Citing racial discrimination, misconduct by the prosecution, and inadequate defense, state and federal judges overturned Woodfox’s conviction three times, while Wallace’s case is once again up for review before the federal courts."^[6]

After Miller's murder in 1972, the three men were taken out of the general prison population and were held in solitary confinement.^[12]

Rahim and Fleming investigation

In 1997, former Black Panther member Malik Rahim, of Common Ground Collective, along with law student Scott Fleming, discovered that King, Wallace, and Woodfox were still incarcerated. They initiated an investigation of the case, questioning the assertions of the original investigations at Angola and raising questions about the prisoners' original trials.

As a result, King was released in 2001, following 29 years in solitary confinement. His first conviction was overturned on appeal, and he pleaded guilty to a lesser conspiracy to commit murder charge. Woodfox and Wallace remained in prison at Angola prison and continued fighting to be released.

Appeals and transfers

In March 2008, Woodfox and Wallace were moved after 36 years, from solitary confinement to a maximum-security dormitory.^[14]

Albert Woodfox had two appeal hearings (one in November 2008 and one in May 2010), which resulted in his conviction being overturned and his being granted full habeas corpus. Both appeals were overturned. Immediately after the first in November 2008, both men were moved out of the dormitory, separated and placed back in isolation and in March 2009. Wallace, along with a group of 15 inmates from Angola, was moved to Elayn Hunt Correctional Center and placed in a newly created closed cell isolation tier. In November 2010, Woodfox was moved to David Wade Correctional Center, which is seven hours north of his family and supporters.

In March 2013, a federal District Court judge in New Orleans overturned Woodfox’s conviction for the third time. However, Louisiana Attorney General James Caldwell promised to appeal the District Court’s decision to the more conservative Fifth Circuit, saying, “We feel confident that we will again prevail at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. However, if we do not, we are fully prepared and willing to retry this murderer again.”^[15]

On November 20, 2014, the Fifth Circuit judges upheld the lower court’s opinion that Woodfox’s conviction was secured through racially discriminatory means. The three-judge panel found unanimously that the selection of the grand-jury foreperson in the 1993 indictment hearing prior to trial formed part of a discriminatory pattern in that area of Louisiana. Concluding that it amounted to a violation of the US Constitution, the judges struck down Woodfox’s conviction. The state of Louisiana refused to release Woodfox, however, and his guards refused to unshackle him or release him from solitary confinement.^[2] On February 12, 2015, Woodfox was indicted a third time for the murder of the prison guard.^[16]

On June 8, 2015, U.S. District Judge James Brady ordered the release of Woodfox after overturning the second conviction for the killing of the guard. The order also bars a third trial from taking place.^[17][18][19] Four days later, a federal appeals court overturned Brady's decision and ordered that Woodfox would remain in prison until the matter was resolved.^[20]

Both men, whose original armed robbery sentences have expired, allegedly suffered from a range of different medical issues—some due in part to their reported conditions of confinement and their enforced sedentary lifestyle. Prisons officials long maintained that the reason for keeping Wallace and Woodfox in solitary confinement was out of concern that they would instigate a prison uprising.^[21] Woodfox was finally released in February 2016 after pleading no contest to lesser charges of manslaughter and aggravated burglary.^[4]

Herman Wallace's release

In July 2013 Amnesty International called for Herman Wallace's release on humanitarian grounds, saying, "Wallace is 71 years old and has advanced liver cancer. After decades of cruel conditions and a conviction that continues to be challenged by the courts, he should be released immediately to his family so that he can be cared for humanely during his last months."^[6] On October 1, 2013, Wallace was granted immediate release by U.S. District Chief Judge Brian A. Jackson of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, ending Wallace's forty-year incarceration in solitary confinement. Wallace was brought to the house of a close friend in New Orleans after being released from Angola.^[22] The state appealed the judge's orders, seeking to keep Wallace in prison. East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore appealed Judge Jackson's order, to which Jackson responded with a threat of charging him with contempt of court.^[23]

On October 3, 2013, a West Feliciana Parish grand jury indicted Wallace again for the 1972 murder of the corrections officer.^[24]

Herman Wallace died on October 4, 2013, 3 days after being released from prison. Jackie Sumell, an artist and Wallace supporter who was with him at the Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans after his release, remarked, "This is a tremendous victory and a miracle that Herman Wallace will die a free man." She continued, "He’s had 42 years of maintaining his innocence in solitary confinement, and if his last few breaths are as a free man, we’ve won."^[8]

Albert Woodfox's release

Amnesty International called for the release of Woodfox after the last of the two Angola Three were released from prison.^[25] He had been held in solitary confinement since 1972.

Woodfox was released from prison in February 2016, after spending 43 years in solitary confinement.^[26]

Popular interest

Albert Woodfox and Robert King at an Angola Three event at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Their cases have gained increased interest over the last few years. Since his release, King has worked to build international recognition for the Angola 3. He has spoken before the parliaments of the Netherlands, France, Portugal, Indonesia, Brazil and United Kingdom about the case, and about political prisoners in the United States. King was received as a guest and dignitary by the African National Congress in South Africa, and has spoken with Desmond Tutu. Amnesty International has added them to their watch list of "political prisoners"/"prisoners of conscience."

The Angola 3 have been the subject of the documentary film 3 Black Panthers and the Last Slave Plantation (2006). They were also the subject of a music video produced by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics in protest of the incarceration of the Angola 3; it features Saul Williams, Nadirah X, Asdru Sierra, Dana Glover, Tina Schlieske, Derrick Ashong and Stewart.^[27] The song "The Rise of the Black Messiah," written by Amy Ray and performed by Indigo Girls, was released in 2015 and inspired by the Angola 3.^[28]

The Angola 3 are the subjects of the documentary In the Land of the Free (2010), directed by Vadim Jean and narrated by Samuel L. Jackson. The film features Robert King, telephone interviews with Woodfox and Wallace, and interviews with attorneys and others involved with the cases. These include the widow of the late guard Brent Miller, who believes the three men are innocent of her husband's murder.

Herman Wallace was the subject of an ongoing socio-political art project entitled The House That Herman Built, in which artist Jackie Sumell asked Wallace what his dream home would be like, documenting his response in various media.^[29] In 2012, Angad Singh Bhalla's film Herman's House, a feature-length documentary about Sumell's project, was released.^[30] The film was followed by an interactive documentary, The Deeper They Bury Me: A Call from Herman Wallace.^[31]

The men have a pending civil suit, Wilkerson, Wallace and Woodfox vs. the State of Louisiana, which the United States Supreme Court ruled has merit to proceed to trial based on the assertion that their more than three decades of solitary confinement is "inhumane and unconstitutional".

Opposition to the release of the Angola Three

There continue to be strong opponents of the inmates' release. Louisiana’s Attorney General, James Caldwell, has stated that he opposes releasing the two men “with every fiber of my being,”^[32] and that they have never been held in solitary confinement but are in "protective cell units known as CCR [Closed Cell Restricted]".^[15] Burl Cain, the warden of Angola and Hunt prisons, has repeatedly suggested that Woodfox and Wallace must be held in solitary because they subscribe to “Black Pantherism.”^[32][33]

Notes and references

Further reading

• Franks, Tim (April 4, 2012). "Forty years in solitary confinement and counting". BBC. 
• Peralta, Eyder (June 9, 2015). "Federal Judge Orders Release Of Last 'Angola 3' Prisoner". The Two-Way. NPR. 

External links