Dear Mr. President,
Albert Woodfox of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola, holds the American record for amount of time spent in solitary confinement-forty years. As part of the "Angola 3" he was convicted under highly dubious circumstances of the murder of a prison guard Brent Miller, along with two other men, Herman Wallace and Robert King. King was freed after his conviction was overturned in 2001.
Woodfox has been ordered freed three times by both state and federal judges, but each time the case has been appealed by the Louisiana Attorney General. Amnesty International has launched a campaign to convince Governor Bobby Jindal to free Woodfox. However, this outcome is unlikely with a Republican governor.
It is high time for you, as President, to take a stand on this case. Woodfox is sixty-seven years old and in ill health. His time is running out.
More reasons to pardon Woodfox below the fold.
There is plenty of reason to suspect a miscarriage of justice in the case of the Angola 3. Woodfox and the other prisoners convicted of Miller's killing argue that they were accused solely on the basis of being the founders of the Angola chapter of the Black Panther Party. Furthermore, Federal Judge James Brady has ruled that the selection of the jury, particularly the jury foreman, was tainted by racial bias. As Democracy Now has reported, Herman Wallace and his family noticed something funny about the jury at the original trial:
VIKKI WALLACE: We went to court. That’s when Herman asked the judge, "Can I ask you a question?" He said, "Yes." He said, "Where the black people is?" I was curious myself. It was a all-white jury. Not one black person was on it. So, the judge told him, "Get him out of here. Get him out." I stood up. I said, "Listen at this." And Herman, when he was pulling him, he had his hand "peace" and "power." He said, "Take care, Vikki." I said, "OK."
The evidence actually linking Woodfox and Wallace to the crime is weak to non-existent. Even Brent Miller's widow has acknowledge the possibility that they are innocent and have been mistreated:
TEENIE VERRET: I’ve been living this for 36 years. There’s not a year that goes by that I don’t have to relive this. And it just keeps going and going. And then these men, I mean, if they did not do this—and I believe that they didn’t—they have been living a nightmare for 36 years
Nightmare is an understatement. For forty years, Woodfox has been held in solitary confinement, to the point that it has become psychological torture. In the
Democracy Now program linked above, Robert King, the freed member of the Angola 3, described what it is like living in solitary confinement for such a long time.
ROBERT KING: Well, being in solitary confinement is—Amy, it’s dehumanizing. It is awesome—it is awful. You are locked in a cell 23 hours a day, sometimes 24. Or you’re in a six-by-nine-by-12. That was my experience. Everywhere you went, you went shackled, you went handcuffed. Of course, the law may have decreed or the codes may have decreed or the administration may have decreed that you get an hour on the tier. This wasn’t set in stone. A lot of time, you did not even get an hour out of your cell. You was there in your cell for 24 hours, because if they declared a security day, they wanted to come through and shake down and harass a lot of people. They came through, and they just abolished that day for yard or foot [inaudible] and anyone taking a shower. So, it was—you was in the cell. You was fed, you know, under a door. You know, there were food slots. They would put the food in the slot sometime. They would still. We had protests against their putting our food trays on the floor. And they cut the slots, but nevertheless, sometime they would still come by, even after the slots were cut.
This case demands your attention as President. Woodfox and Wallace are American citizens facing horrendous torture for a crime they probably didn't commit. Both state and federal judges have ruled that they should be freed. Even the victim's widow has qualms about what has happened. The only obstacle standing in the way is a Republican governor and an Attorney General, both looking to score points with the tough on crime crowd. Executive action is needed.
You have no more elections to face, Mr. President, not even a mid-term. You are truly free to assert your power of pardon without fear of retribution. The time has come to take a stand for justice and cement your legacy as a just president.