[Pnews] Report on Albert Woodfox Appeals Court Hearing
Prisoner News
ppnews at freedomarchives.org
Tue Jan 7 16:36:02 EST 2014
Louisiana seeks to restore inmate's conviction in guard's 1972 death
before appeals court
* By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press
* First Posted: January 07, 2014 - 3:26 pm
Last Updated: January 07, 2014 - 3:29 pm
*http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/8ebc5d932d124ee1bfcd394a04505be1/LA--Angola-Three/#.UsxyW7RMuEc*
NEW ORLEANS --- Lawyers for the state of Louisiana asked a federal
appeals court Tuesday to reinstate the conviction of inmate Albert
Woodfox in the 1972 stabbing death of a prison guard, despite objections
from human rights activists who have long said the state's case is
flawed and that Woodfox has suffered from decades of solitary confinement.
Woodfox is one of the inmates supporters dubbed the "Angola Three,"
owing to their long stretches in isolation at the state penitentiary in
Angola. Herman Wallace, convicted with Woodfox of murder in the death of
guard Brent Miller, died last fall only days after a judge freed him and
granted him a new trial.
The third "Angola Three" member, Robert King, who was convicted of
killing a fellow inmate in 1973, was released in 2001 after his
conviction was reversed. Sporting a yellow scarf with the words "Justice
for Albert Woodfox," King was among dozens of Woodfox supporters who
packed the main courtroom and filled part of an overflow courtroom to
hear arguments before a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals.
In 2010, Woodfox was moved to the David Wade Correctional Center in
Homer, where he remains in custody. "He's still being held in solitary
confinement," King said in a brief interview following the procedures.
Woodfox and Wallace have said they were singled out for harsh treatment
because of their political activism. Woodfox, Wallace and King joined
the Black Panthers after arriving at the Angola prison in the late 1960s
and began organizing a prison chapter of the group in 1971.
Amnesty International and a United Nations human rights expert have
called for an end to Woodfox's isolation. His supporters have called the
case against him deeply flawed and say there was no physical evidence
linking him to Miller's death. However, the merits of the case against
him were not at issue Tuesday.
At issue was whether U.S. District Judge James Brady
<http://www.dailyjournal.net/search/person/16ade91b8fdc4601a516b38600f3dc1a>
ruled correctly last year when he agreed with Woodfox's claim that his
1993 indictment by a West Feliciana Parish grand jury was tainted by
discrimination in the grand jury foreman selection process.
Arguing for Attorney General Buddy Caldwell's office, attorney Rick
Stanley said the evidence did not support Brady's decision to throw out
the conviction. And he said the overall grand jury process was fair,
citing the makeup of the 1993 panel that indicted Woodfox: five black
women, three white women and three white men. "The grand jury itself was
racially well represented," he said.
Carine Williams, representing Woodfox, argued that Brady was correct in
ruling that the state failed to show that "objective, race-neutral
criteria" --- such as education and employment --- were used in the
selection process. That process, she noted, resulted in only five of 27
foremen selected for grand juries in West Feliciana between 1980 and
1993 were black --- and only one selected by the judge who presided in
Woodfox's case was black. African-Americans made up 44 percent of the
parish population at the time, she said.
The judges in the case were Patrick Higginbotham and Leslie Southwick,
who were present in the courtroom, and E. Grady Jolly, who listened to
arguments remotely from Jackson, Mississippi The court gave no reason
for his absence from the courtroom. There was no indication when the
panel would rule.
--
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