Justice for the Angola 3
- by: Anita Roddick
- recipient: M.J. "Mike" Foster, Jr., Governor, State of Louisiana
We demand that the remaining two Angola Three prisoners be moved from solitary confinement -- where they have languished for 30 years -- and be granted new trials based on evidence they were framed for the murder of a white guard.
\Albert Woodfox, Harman Wallace, and Robert Wilkerson are three black men who arrived at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola in the early 1970s on unrelated robbery convictions. At the time, Angola was known as the most brutal, corrupt, and racially segregated prison in America. Stabbings, shootings, and rapes were almost daily occurrences.
Hoping to make a stand for basic human rights and dignity, the three men founded a chapter of the civil-rights group the Black Panthers to protect those inmates being victimized the most and to expose and fight the corrupt prison administration.
When a young white guard turned up dead inside the prison, officials worked quickly to pin the crime on members of the Panthers in an effort to smash the group. Woodfox and Wallace were soon tried for the crime, based on testimony by known prison snitches who were paid for their testimony with reduced sentences and, in one case, with a carton of cigarettes a week. They were convicted by all-white juries, sentenced to life without parole, and thrown into solitary confinement indefinitely.
Wilkerson soon joined them, convicted by another all-white jury for the stabbing death of a fellow inmate, again based on testimony by a fellow inmate who later said he was coerced into fingering Wilkerson. While on trial, the judge had Wilkerson's mouth duct-taped shut. Wilkerson's conviction stood for 29 years, despite the fact that another man had confessed to and was convicted of the murder.
Wilkerson's conviction was finally overturned last year. But Woodfox and Wallace remain behind bars, in solitary confinement 23 hours a day. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a suit against the prison administration maintaining that 30 years in solitary constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
Mumia Abu-Jamal said of the Angola Three, "It is past time for people to organize for their life in freedom. They are political prisoners of the highest caliber who deserve your support."
By signing this petition, you are expressing your commitment to human rights and justice, in America and elsewhere. No one is free while others are oppressed.
STATEMENT: Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace are political prisoners who have suffered for three decades under inhumane and cruel conditions for crimes they did not commit. We demand that they be moved immediately from their solitary "supermax" cells into the general prison population.
Further, we demand that evidence that has since emerged that their convictions were based on false and coerced testimony be considered in granting them new trials.
The American justice system lies at the heart of the country's very identity as a free and democratic republic. Travesties of justice such as this weaken the system as a whole, and therefore weaken both the country itself and the cause of freedom around the world.
Sign PetitionSign PetitionHoping to make a stand for basic human rights and dignity, the three men founded a chapter of the civil-rights group the Black Panthers to protect those inmates being victimized the most and to expose and fight the corrupt prison administration.
When a young white guard turned up dead inside the prison, officials worked quickly to pin the crime on members of the Panthers in an effort to smash the group. Woodfox and Wallace were soon tried for the crime, based on testimony by known prison snitches who were paid for their testimony with reduced sentences and, in one case, with a carton of cigarettes a week. They were convicted by all-white juries, sentenced to life without parole, and thrown into solitary confinement indefinitely.
Wilkerson soon joined them, convicted by another all-white jury for the stabbing death of a fellow inmate, again based on testimony by a fellow inmate who later said he was coerced into fingering Wilkerson. While on trial, the judge had Wilkerson's mouth duct-taped shut. Wilkerson's conviction stood for 29 years, despite the fact that another man had confessed to and was convicted of the murder.
Wilkerson's conviction was finally overturned last year. But Woodfox and Wallace remain behind bars, in solitary confinement 23 hours a day. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a suit against the prison administration maintaining that 30 years in solitary constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
Mumia Abu-Jamal said of the Angola Three, "It is past time for people to organize for their life in freedom. They are political prisoners of the highest caliber who deserve your support."
By signing this petition, you are expressing your commitment to human rights and justice, in America and elsewhere. No one is free while others are oppressed.
STATEMENT: Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace are political prisoners who have suffered for three decades under inhumane and cruel conditions for crimes they did not commit. We demand that they be moved immediately from their solitary "supermax" cells into the general prison population.
Further, we demand that evidence that has since emerged that their convictions were based on false and coerced testimony be considered in granting them new trials.
The American justice system lies at the heart of the country's very identity as a free and democratic republic. Travesties of justice such as this weaken the system as a whole, and therefore weaken both the country itself and the cause of freedom around the world.
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