Cell Door Magazine - State Watch for Louisianna

ALBERT WOODFOX, in his 31st year of solitary confinement in Louisiana, files new appeal presenting overwhelming new evidence of innocence.

Nick Trenticosta

Center for Equal Justice

New Orleans, Louisiana

(504) 864-0700

Scott Fleming

Oakland, California

(510) 595-8264

NEW ORLEANS - Albert Woodfox of the Angola 3, who has spent more than 30 years in solitary confinement at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, filed a new appeal this week in a Louisiana state court, seeking to prove his innocence and win his freedom.

Woodfox, 55, and his co-defendant and friend, Herman Wallace, 61, are both serving sentences of life without parole for the 1972 murder of a prison guard, Brent Miller. Both men have been held in solitary confinement since April 17, 1972, the day of the murder.

Woodfox and Wallace have always contended that they did not commit the murder and that they were falsely charged by prison officials. At the time, Woodfox and Wallace were leading activists among African-American prisoners seeking to improve conditions at the slave plantation-turned-prison, which was still racially segregated and notorious for brutality and violence.

Woodfox's appeal, called an Application for Post-Conviction Relief, presents new evidence to support the men's contentions. It was filed in the 21st Judicial District Court in Amite, Louisiana.

Woodfox has provided the court with sworn statements from two of three living prosecution witnesses, both of whom have now recanted their testimony against him and Wallace. Woodfox's attorneys have also obtained prosecution files that prove that witnesses for the state lied under oath with the knowledge of the prosecution. In addition, Woodfox has identified new witnesses who state that a deceased Angola prisoner named Irvin Breaux confessed to the Miller murder.

The new court filing includes declarations from a number of preeminent experts in DNA testing and forensic sciences who state that new forensic procedures, unavailable in 1972, could be used to exonerate Woodfox and Wallace.

Robert King Wilkerson has spent a busy second year of freedom. Robert has continued to travel widely, speaking out about the conditions in Angola and the plight of Woodfox and Wallace. In between time, he's started his own candy business, selling "Freelines" and as he says, "making life a little sweeter for you and for me". Robert just returned from a month long speaking engagement in England, where he and his attorney, Christopher Aberle, presented the case of the Angola 3 to numerous groups and venues.

Albert Woodfox has had a trying year, watching his sister Violetta, a constant support throughout his long incarceration, wage a valiant battle against the cancer which took her from us in August of this year. Albert has endured an increase of cell shake-downs and limitations of the minimal privileges he had as the pressure of the case mounts on the prison administration. The October 28th, 2002 filing of his post conviction appeal, providing new evidence supporting his claim of innocence is a milestone in his struggle for freedom.

Herman Wallace has been singled out for particularly harsh retaliation from the prison administration this past year. Since March he has endured a seemingly endless cycle of harassment and punishment that shows little sign of let up. Throughout his ordeal, Herman has fought to bring attention to the illegal and unethical systems allowing the arbitrary punishment of inmates. His greatest concern has been the confiscation of much of his property, slowing down his efforts to fight his own case and to assist other prisoners, both men and women in other prisons.

Our concern is to force the state to stop keeping men in lockdown indefinitely. There needs to be a set of criteria, a program or merit system that would show an inmate how or what is expected of him to be released from lockdown. The court must specify what constitutes cruel and unusual punishment relative to long-term confinement and how many years in lockdown, solitary or supermax is considered cruel and unusual punishment.