COALITION TO FREE THE ANGOLA THREEFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Emma Mackinnon

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Conviction Overturned After 36 Years in Solitary For “Angola 3” Member
Albert Woodfox

Federal Judge Orders the State: Must Either Retry or Dismiss Charges
Against “Angola 3” Member

Lawyers: Charges Should be Dismissed Immediately; Otherwise, Woodfox
Should be Released on Bail

In response to a federal judge’s decision overturning the conviction
of Albert Woodfox, one of the two “Angola 3” members who remain in
prison, lawyers for the men called on the State Attorney General’s
office to drop any further charges and release the men immediately.
If the state intends to re-try Woodfox, they said, he should be
released on bail until the time of trial. They argued the man, now 61
and in poor health, has spent long enough imprisoned on a wrongful
conviction and that continuing to hold him would be unthinkable.

Woodfox and fellow inmate Herman Wallace have been imprisoned since
1972 for the murder of prison guard Brent Miller. They spent 36 years
of that time in solitary confinement. The federal judge’s ruling
acknowledged that Woodfox has been wrongfully imprisoned. His
conviction rested on the testimony of a fellow prisoner, a convicted
serial rapist who was promised and received the warden’s help
obtaining a pardon in exchange for testifying against Herman and
Albert. The deal was not disclosed at trial; the witness was pardoned
and freed later. An additional witness, who said he had seen Albert in
the area of the crime, was a schizophrenic who was on heavy doses of
psychotropic medications at the time of the murder, which also was not
disclosed. No physical evidence ties Woodfox or Wallace to the crime.

“Both the magistrate judge and the district court judge have now found
that Woodfox’s conviction was invalid and had to be reversed. Woodfox
has demonstrated the deep flaws in the state’s investigation and
prosecution of the case against him, and has presented evidence of his
innocence. If the State of Louisiana appeals, it will bear the burden
of showing the court of appeals that both of the two judges were
incorrect. As the facts and the law are so clearly on the side of Mr.
Woodfox, we are confident that the State cannot carry that burden. No
further legal delay should deprive Albert of even one more day of his
life,” said Chris Aberle, one of Woodfox’s lawyers.

“The state has already stolen nearly four decades of Albert Woodfox’s
life. The injustice in this case is unfathomable. How can Louisiana
continue to imprison a 61 year old man after a federal judge has ruled
that he shouldn’t have been convicted in the first place? Albert must
be released,” said Nick Trenticosta, co-counsel in the case.

The third member of the Angola 3, Robert King, was released in 2001
after a judge overturned his conviction. King had spent 29 years in
solitary confinement for a separate crime.