Angola 3's Albert Woodfox to be released Friday after decades in solitary
Last edited Fri Feb 19, 2016, 04:58 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: The Times-Picayune
Albert Woodfox, the last remaining member of the Angola 3, will likely be released from state custody after more than four decades in solitary confinement in Louisiana prisons. He pleaded no contest Friday (Feb. 19) in state court in West Feliciana Parish to lesser charges than the murder for which he was indicted of last year for the third time and has earned enough credit for time already served to prompt his release, according to Woodfox's attorney, George Kendall.
Woodfox is believed to have served the longest period of time in solitary confinement of any inmate in the United States -- about 44 years, with a few months spent in general population over a scattered period. His imprisonment is the result of two convictions, both which were overturned, for the 1972 murder of prison guard Brent Miller, who was stabbed to death at age 23 while working at Louisiana State Penitentiary, in Angola.
Woodfox has always maintained his innocence, and his attorneys and supporters say the crime was pinned on him and another prisoner, the late Herman Wallace, in part to silence their activism as organizing members of an official Blank Panther Party chapter inside the prison in the early 1970s.
The potential release of Woodfox comes after a West Feliciana Parish grand jury indicted him Feb. 12, 2015, for a third time in the decades-old murder. His attorneys and prosecutors from the Louisiana Attorney General's office had been preparing for a trial. Kendall, through an assistant, said Woodfox pleaded "no contest" to two lesser charges: manslaughter and aggravated burglary. A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt.
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Read more: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2016/02/woodfox_release_angola_3_solit.html
By Emily Lane, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on February 19, 2016 at 11:54 AM, updated February 19, 2016 at 1:57 PM
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Source: Associated Press
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN AND KEVIN MCGILL, ASSOCIATED PRESS
ST. FRANCISVILLE, La. — Feb 19, 2016, 3:33 PM ET
The last inmate of a group known as the "Angola Three" pleaded no contest Friday to manslaughter in the 1972 death of a prison guard and was released after more than four decades in prison.
Albert Woodfox and two other men became known as the "Angola Three" for their decades-long stays in isolation at the Louisiana Penitentiary at Angola and other prisons. Officials said they were kept in solitary because their Black Panther Party activism would otherwise rile up inmates at the maximum-security prison farm in Angola.
Woodfox consistently maintained his innocence in the killing of guard Brent Miller. He was being held at the West Feliciana Parish Detention Center in St. Francisville, about 30 miles north of Baton Rouge. He was awaiting a third trial in Miller's death after earlier convictions were thrown out by federal courts for reasons including racial bias in selecting a grand jury foreman.
Woodfox, who turned 69 on the same day he was released from custody, spoke to reporters and supporters briefly outside the jail before driving off with his brother. Speaking of his future plans, he said he wanted to visit his mother's gravesite. She died while he was in prison, and Woodfox said he was not allowed to go to the funeral.
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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/lawyer-angola-inmates-released-37061293
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