[Pnews] Albert Woodfox & Two lessons the USA must learn from Glenn Ford

[Prisoner News]

    Two lessons the USA must learn from Glenn Ford
    <http://livewire.amnesty.org/2014/03/12/two-lessons-the-usa-must-learn-from-glenn-ford/>

Posted on 12 March 2014 
<http://livewire.amnesty.org/2014/03/12/two-lessons-the-usa-must-learn-from-glenn-ford/> 
by Josefina Salomon <http://livewire.amnesty.org/author/josefina-salomon/>
*http://livewire.amnesty.org/2014/03/12/two-lessons-the-usa-must-learn-from-glenn-ford/*

/By Tessa Murphy, USA campaigner at Amnesty International./

There are two lessons the USA should learn from the release of Glenn 
Ford, a 64-year-old man who spent 28 years on death row in Louisiana for 
a crime he didn't commit.

The first lesson is that the death penalty is never the answer, 
including because it carries the inescapable risk of executing innocent 
people. The second is that there are some serious problems with 
Louisiana's justice system.

Glenn Ford walked out of the southern state's infamous Angola prison 
late yesterday, after spending nearly three decades behind bars for a 
crime he's always claimed he never committed.

He was sentenced to death in 1984 for the murder of Isadore Rozeman in 
the north-western Louisiana city of Shreveport in November 1983. His 
freedom comes after a Louisiana judge ordered his release, following the 
state's disclosure last year that another man had admitted to the crime 
in May 2013.

Glenn Ford is the 144th exonerated prisoner to be released from death 
row in the USA since 1973, and the 10th such case in Louisiana, 
according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, DC.

His case shows some of the hallmarks present in other cases of wrongful 
conviction -- inexperienced trial lawyers, unreliable witness testimony, 
and prosecutorial misconduct. Questions of race, never far from the US 
death penalty, were also raised in this case. Glenn Ford is 
African-American and was tried for the murder of a white man by a jury 
consisting of 12 white jurors, after African Americans had been 
dismissed by the prosecution during jury selection.

Despite the flimsy nature of the evidence against him, the death 
sentence hung over his head for decades. The Louisiana Supreme Court 
affirmed the conviction and death sentence in 1986, despite 
acknowledging that there were "serious questions" about the evidence. 
One of the judges had dissented, arguing that there was insufficient 
evidence to convict Glenn Ford.

This case is reminiscent of another that has been litigated for over 40 
years, sharing many of the same flaws. Albert Woodfox, one of the 
'Angola 3' inmates previously in the same prison as Glenn Ford, was 
convicted in 1973 of the murder of a prison guard before an all-white 
jury. No physical evidence linked him to the crime, potentially 
exculpatory evidence was lost and the convictions were based on the 
discredited testimony of the only eyewitness to the murder -- who was 
later shown to have received privileges, including a pardon, in return 
for his statement.

Despite his conviction having been overturned three times, once in a 
state court and twice by federal judge, Albert Woodfox remains 
incarcerated while he continues to litigate his case. The state of 
Louisiana has appealed against every court ruling in his favour while 
the serious flaws in his case remain without remedy. The case is 
currently before the federal appeals court. Should the court rule 
against him, it is likely that Albert Woodfox will die in prison.

A second member of the 'Angola 3', Herman Wallace, had his conviction 
overturned by a federal judge last year on the basis of the systematic 
exclusion of women from the grand jury that indicted him. It took a 
terminal diagnosis of cancer for the federal court to expedite their 
ruling on the case, and a judge who recognised that "the Louisiana 
court, when presented with the opportunity to correct this error, failed 
to do so". Herman Wallace died three days after his release.

Glenn Ford and Herman Wallace lost decades of their lives behind bars 
under a flawed system. Meanwhile, justice remains elusive for Albert 
Woodfox. Amnesty International continues to call for him to be released.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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