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News & Letters, July 2001
Fight for freedom for the Angola 3
Chicago--Albert Woodfox and Herman "Hooks" Wallace,
two members of the "Angola 3," remain in the notorious
Angola Prison in Louisiana after almost 30 years of solitary
confinement. They are serving sentences of natural life in a
cell the size of a small bathroom 23 hours a day, seven days a
week. The other member, Robert King Wilkerson, finally gained
his freedom after 29 years at Angola Penitentiary for a crime he
did not commit.
The Angola 3 are unique according to Mumia Abu-Jamal, who calls
them "political prisoners of the highest caliber," and
longtime political prisoner Geronimo Ji Jaga (Pratt) (now
freed), who calls them "the kind of soldiers who never
cried out to anyone for help, even though they were facing life
imprisonment. Understand that being in that situation for so
long, I can personally attest to the highly disciplined and
dedicated nature of these ASKARIS. They endured, and they
survived, over all the years, with very little help from the
outside."
All three were originally imprisoned for unrelated crimes 30
years ago. Substantial evidence carefully organized by their
legal team confirms that they were framed in the murder of a
prison guard in 1971, by authorities intent on crushing their
political organizing. Their cases are still alive in the courts;
however, Woodfox's appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court was
denied the week of June 25. A hearing on Wallace's case is
scheduled for June 28 in Baton Rouge.
Like 85% of the population warehoused at Angola, the three are
African American. Angola Penitentiary is named after the
homeland of the slaves who worked the land, which was once a
plantation. The prison has earned notoriety for violence, the
plantation-style forced labor in the fields by inmates, and more
recently, via the documentary "Angola: The Farm,"
which was nominated for an Academy Award.
In King 's case, the witness who originally testified against
him was threatened with the electric chair if he supported King
's claim to innocence. At trial, King was shackled and his mouth
was taped shut. King 's confinement continued even after another
man confessed to the crime. He was finally released in February,
whereupon he stated that, "I may be free of Angola but
Angola will never be free of me."
Angola 3 Support Committees are already active on both coasts,
supplementing efforts in Louisiana to secure Woodfox and
Wallace's freedom. Activists in Chicago are meeting in July to
organize a speaking tour by King to publicize, among other
things, the inhumanity and injustice of the American penal
system and the innocence of the two still confined in what some
call "the belly of the beast."
For more information, call (504) 940-6756 or (504) 484-7131.
--Beth Shaw
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