[Ppnews] In His Own Words: Albert Woodfox of the Angola 3
Political Prisoner News
ppnews at freedomarchives.org
Mon Apr 2 15:03:50 EDT 2007
Monday, April 02 2007 @ 12:00 PM PDT
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=2007angola3
Kari Lydersen: In His Own Words: Albert Woodfox of the Angola 3
Thursday, March 29 2007 @ 11:14 PM PDT
Contributed by:
<http://www.infoshop.org/inews/users.php?mode=profile&uid=2>Admin
Views: 262
[]
The two still-incarcerated members of the Angola
3,Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace, have been
in solitary confinement for 32 and 35 years,
respectively among the longest in US history.
An exclusive Infoshop News interview.
Along with Robert King Wilkerson, who was
released from prison in 2001, they were convicted
of the 1972 murder of a white guard at the
infamous Angola prison farm about 100 miles from
New Orleans. As politicized members of the Black
Panther Party in the Louisiana prison system,
their supporters say they were framed for the
guards murder and subsequently kept isolated
from other inmates because of their political
beliefs and activism. This winter a state
judicial commissioner opined that Wallace should
get a new trial; a state judge will rule on the
matter after prosecutors file a response to the
commissioners decision. Woodfox, who was
reconvicted in a 1998 trial with serious conflict
of interest issues described below, has a habeas
corpus petition pending in federal court.
In His Own Words: Albert Woodfox of the Angola 3
Interview by Kari Lydersen
Infoshop News Exclusive
March 30, 2007
Louisiana -- The two still-incarcerated members
of the
<http://www.infoshop.org/wiki/index.php/Angola_3>Angola
3, Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace, have been
in solitary confinement for 32 and 35 years,
respectively among the longest in US history.
Along with Robert King Wilkerson, who was
released from prison in 2001, they were convicted
of the 1972 murder of a white guard at the
infamous Angola prison farm about 100 miles from
New Orleans. As politicized members of the Black
Panther Party in the Louisiana prison system,
their supporters say they were framed for the
guards murder and subsequently kept isolated
from other inmates because of their political
beliefs and activism. This winter a state
judicial commissioner opined that Wallace should
get a new trial; a state judge will rule on the
matter after prosecutors file a response to the
commissioners decision. Woodfox, who was
reconvicted in a 1998 trial with serious conflict
of interest issues described below, has a habeas
corpus petition pending in federal court. The two
are also both plaintiffs in a federal civil
lawsuit challenging their ongoing solitary
confinement as cruel and unusual punishment. For
more information, visit
<http://www.angola3.org/>www.angola3.org. On
March 24 and 25, I talked with Albert Woodfox in Angola.
Q: How do you feel about your chances for freedom at this point?
AW: Hope is eternal. But Im worried about the
conservative tilt of the federal court since Bush
has been in office. If they go by the letter of
the law, I should get a new trial.
Q: It seems incredible that one of the members of
the Grand Jury that led to your 1998 trial was
Anne Butler, the wife of the former Angola
warden, who had written a book about the guards
murder. How can this be? [As a side note, that
warden later was sentenced to prison himself for
trying to murder his wife, shooting her five times.]
AW: Not only did she write the book Dying to
Tell, but she took it into the Grand Jury room
and talked about the case. Anyone with
pre-knowledge of the crime is not supposed to sit
on a Grand Jury. This came up in my appeal to the
state, but it was denied. This clearly violates
my 14th Amendment right to due process under the
law. And the trial was moved to this small town
of Amite. We heard that some of the jurors didnt
want to convict me, but they were beaten down. In
a small town its guaranteed that people will run
into each other, and so on a jury that small town
mentality sets in. They dont want to be the ones
known for letting this man go free. They think,
Im not going to go out on a branch and isolate
myself for someone I dont even know. I think
they (prosecutors) counted on that small town
mentality, thats why they moved the trial.
Q: Do you think the justice system has changed or
improved at all since the 1970s?
AW: I think the justice system is exactly the
same. Its corrupt, prejudicial, racist. Theres
the saying why fix something that isnt broken.
From their perspective, why change something
thats worked so well for them for so many years?
You hear politicians say the justice system isnt
perfect but its best in the world. Well weve
had hundreds of people freed by DNA evidence now.
If this was the best system in the world all
those innocent people wouldnt be in there.
Attorneys seem more concerned with getting
convictions than the guilt or innocence of the
person charged. And under the theory that
District Attorneys and police need to do their
job free from intimidation, they are given
immunity. So they can continuously violate the
law without any fear of being punished for it.
Q: Is Louisiana one of the worst states as far as
having a racist and corrupt justice system? Roy
Hollingsworth (a fellow inmate in the isolation
wing and Angola 3 supporter) said he represents
himself because hed be afraid to have a lawyer in Louisiana.
AW: Ive only been exposed to two justice
systems, in Louisiana and New York, and while all
systems are corrupt and racist, procedurally
Louisiana has got to have one of the most chaotic
justice systems in the US. In everything except
capital cases, it still operates under the old
Napoleonic system where [to get an indictment]
the DA just has to produce a bill of information,
saying so and so did such and such, without any
evidence showing a crime occurred.
Q: So you and Herman have been in solitary your whole time at Angola?
AW: For Herman it will be 35 years on April 18.
The guard was killed on April 17, and he was put
in solitary the next day. Ive been in CCR or
Camp J (both solitary confinement) my whole time
in Angola, for a total of 32 years. I was
discharged to the St. Francisville Sheriffs
Department in April 1996 [pending his new trial],
and then when I was returned to Angola in March
1999 after being convicted again, I was put back
in CCR. When I was in general population [in St.
Francisville], it was strange to sit at a table
and eat a meal with another human being, to be in
the yard with other people. I didnt know what to
do with my hands or how to stand naturally
[without restraints]. One of the most important
issues in this country is how they are building
all these Supermax prisons where they isolate
individuals, its sensory deprivation. This case
could affect the prison system across America if we win.
Q: You said you cant talk about your personal
experience in solitary because of the pending
lawsuit. What is it like for someone in solitary in general?
AW: Its cruel and unusual. Youre locked in a
cell 23 hours a day. It denies you the
opportunity to interact with human beings and
just be a human being. The conditions in CCR are
much better than most Supermax prisons. We have
color TV, microwaves, a hot water tap. But the
issue is constitutional, our constitutional due
process rights to be treated like other prisoners
have been violated. No matter how well we behave,
we dont have a way to get out of solitary. What
is a color TV if you cant be with other human beings?
Q: With your lawsuit and others in the past few
years, do you think public awareness of the human
rights issues raised by Supermax prisons and solitary confinement is growing?
AW: No, the American people can only see their
immediate needs, and how things affect them on a
personal level. So theyre not concerned with
someone who is locked in a cell 23 hours a day if
they feel safe because people are being arrested
and locked up. America trains its citizens in
me-ism. So the American government and the
American judicial system are winning. People are
brainwashed by all these shows like CSI and
Law and Order. They just show perfect
situations where everyone who is arrested is guilty.
Q: How about public awareness of police brutality?
AW: People tend to say that cant happen, police
wouldnt do that. Until it happens to them, you
hear families of [police brutality] victims on TV
saying, I cant believe this happened, this is
America. Now that it happened to them, the outrage becomes personal.
In general people have too much blind trust in
public institutions. You should respect and
support a government when it does the right
thing, but you should never trust it. People have
this blind trust, then theyre shocked when its violated.
Look at Sean Bell in New York [killed outside a
nightclub before his wedding day]. Fifty shots
fired into a van, when no criminal act, no act of
violence had occurred. And theyll be found not
guilty. In New York they think the police can do
no wrong, especially if there is a minority involved.
Q: Whats the status of Herman's case since the
commissioner said he should get a new trial?
AW: The state was supposed to have 10 days to
appeal, but they didnt file anything in those
days, then the judge still let them file late.
And to add insult to injury, the judge gave them
30 extra days, and then 60 extra days, to put their brief together.
Q: Do you see any parallels between whats going
on with the war and imprisonment on a global scale and your situation?
AW: Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib are prime examples
of the American justice system. Most of the
people involved in torture at Abu Ghraib were
correctional officers thats a fact lost in the
media. A lot of the techniques they used were
created right here in our prisons. Everything
theyre trying to do in Iraq is an extension of
America. Thats why theyre never going to win
this war. You cant take people and force them to
live in a western system so different from what
theyve been used to for centuries. Its gun barrel democracy.
Q: Can you tell how Katrina has affected New
Orleans and the region at this point?
AW: Katrina showed people exactly what America is
about. That how youre treated by state, federal
and local governments depends on the color of
your skin. I think the political machine in this
country, particularly Republicans, have done a
lot of things trying to destroy New Orleans as a
predominantly African American city. New Orleans
has always been a thorn in the Republicans side.
Theyll be leading in the region and then when it
comes to New Orleans the vote is 97 percent
Democrat. After Katrina they did a lot to try to
embarrass Governor Kathleen Blanco for things she
had no control over. And it worked, shes not
running for governor again. That leaves it wide
open for [Republican] Bobby Jindal.
Q: What have you heard about how the recovery is going?
AW: I dont know that the city will ever be
around 65 percent African American again. The
system is doing everything it can to make sure
that doesnt happen. [Grassroots activist group]
Common Ground has made a difference. And the
media ignores them theyll call every other
Baptist and Catholic organization and government
agency by name, but they never mention Common
Ground. Ill see clips on TV and say, Oh theres
[Common Ground founder and Black Panther] Malik
[Rahim], thats Common Ground; but theyll just
say community activists. Two of the founders of
Common Ground Malik and [former A-3 inmate]
King were Black Panthers. It is based on the Ten
Point Program, and Common Ground shows that 30
some years later, that still proves an effective
tool for serving the community.
Kari Lydersen is a freelance writer whose work
has appeared in the Washington Post, In These
Times, LiP Magazine, Clamor, and The New Standard.
The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/ppnews_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20070402/c131bf8e/attachment.htm>
More information about the PPnews
mailing list