human rights News from the Angola 3

One year ago today, supporters of Albert Woodfox were elated when Judge Brady’s ruling on Albert’s criminal case was announced.  It was a THIRD overturning of his conviction!

How can it be possible that an innocent man, who now stands unconvicted in the eyes of the law, remains locked in a solitary cage while he waits for the State’s endless appeal efforts to play out?  How many more appeals, how many courts will it take for the State to finally recognize that they’ve done enough to this man? 

There are oceans of press – firsthand accounts, testimony, scientific reports, documentaries, videos, songs – all establishing the senseless torture that is solitary confinement in the U.S. today.  We are heartened by the significant solitary reforms agreed to by NY state this week and the Colorado guard who just publicly committed to eliminating solitary in Colorado. Yesterday’s second set of hearings called by U.S. Senator Dick Durbin on solitary confinement were better attended with more spirited commentary than the first hearing last year (A written statement jointly submitted to yesterday’s hearing by Robert King and Albert Woodfox is reprinted below).  We see a major shift occurring in the perception and use of solitary in this country. You can watch video footage of the hearings at CSPAN.

Across the country in California a prisoner who has spent more than 42 years in solitary, Hugo Pinell, was recently moved to another facility where he has greater access to visits and a promise of eventual transfer out of solitary. On the East Coast, the long time struggle to move Pennsylvania prisoner Russell Maroon Shoatz out of solitary succeeded just last week.  State by state, correctional departments are reviewing this punishment modality that has raised such an outcry and are making changes.  We can only pray that the State of Louisiana will join the rest of the country in recognizing that solitary confinement should be abolished, and begin by opening the gates for Albert.

Robert King Tours US & Canada to Speak Out for Albert Woodfox and Against Solitary Confinement

(PHOTO: Robert King and filmmaker Ron Harpelle w/ Kathleen Cleaver at the Montreal Black Film Festival on February 21, 2014. View more photos, including from Toronto’s Black Film Festival here.)

As announced in our last newsletter, the Angola 3’s Robert King has been traveling in the US, speaking in Chicago about solitary confinement at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in Canada alongside screenings of the film Hard Time. Featured below is a compilation of media coverage.

American Association for the Advancement of Science

BBC News: Scientists call solitary confinement ‘damaging and unnecessary’  II  Japan Times / AFP: In prisons, solitary takes toll on minds  II  VIDEO: Science Magazine Live Chat w/ Robert King; Is Solitary Confinement Torture?  II  CNN: 29 Years in a Box

Hard Time Screenings in Montreal and Toronto, Canada

Tout Le Monde En Parle  II  Interview by Canadian Prison Radio Show  II  Morning News Montreal Televison Interview  II  La Presse: En croisade contre le milieu carcéral américain  II  Montreal Gazette Interview  II  Le Devoir: 29 ans d’isolement en prison

Angola Three: 42 Years of Solitary, 42 Years of Cruel and Unusual Punishment  
–A statement submitted for the February 25 Congressional hearing on the use of solitary confinement in US prisons

Dear Chairman Durbin and Ranking Member Cruz:

My name is Robert Hillary King.  I spent 29 years in solitary before I was freed in 2001 after proving my innocence.  Since then I have worked tirelessly speaking and traveling around the world  to raise awareness about prison conditions in the US, and to bring attention to the remaining member of the Angola 3-Albert Woodfox-who is still behind solitary bars in Louisiana after nearly 42 years  actively fighting to prove his innocence in federal court.  

Albert Woodfox’s murder conviction was overturned for a 3rd time  in February of last year, and for a third time, the State of Louisiana appealed.  As Woodfox, now 67, prepares to enter his 42nd year in solitary confinement, he continues to maintain his innocence. 

The third member of the Angola 3, Herman Wallace, was released  last October from 41 years of solitary confinement after his conviction was overturned,  but died 3 days later of advanced liver cancer at the age of 72.  A group of U.S. Congressmen saw fit to mark his passing by entering a tribute to Wallace into the Congressional record, describing him as a “champion for justice and human rights.”

Many people ask me to describe my nearly 3 decades in solitary. Here is an excerpt from my autobiography where I attempted to put these experiences into words:

“Solitary confinement is terrifying, especially if you are innocent of the charges that put you there.  It evokes a lot of emotion.  It was a nightmare.  My soul still cries from all I witnessed and endured.  It mourns continuously.  Through the course of my confinement I saw men so desperate that they ripped prison doors apart and both starved and mutilated themselves.  It takes every scrap of humanity to stay focused and sane in that environment.  The pain and suffering are everywhere, constantly with you.  There’s no describing the day to day assault on your body and your mind and the feelings of hopelessness and despair.”

Over a decade ago Herman, Albert and I filed a landmark civil lawsuit challenging the inhumane and increasingly pervasive practice of long-term solitary confinement.   Magistrate Judge Dalby describes our almost four decades of solitary as “durations so far beyond the pale” she could not find “anything even remotely comparable in the annals of American jurisprudence.”   The case, scheduled for trial in June 2014, will detail decades of unconstitutionally cruel and unusual treatment (in violation of 1st, 4th, 8th, 13th and 14th Amendment rights) and systematic due process violations at the hands of Louisiana officials.

In July 2013 a group of US Congressmen issued a statement from the House Judiciary Committee calling on DOJ to investigate “the egregious and extensive use of solitary confinement and other troubling detention practices in various Louisiana prison facilities,”  alleging that the Louisiana Department of Corrections “has engaged in a pattern or practice of violations of the US Constitution and federal law in its use of such confinement and detention practices.”

Then in October, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan E. Méndez, called on the United States to immediately end the indefinite solitary confinement imposed on Albert Woodfox since 1972 saying “keeping Albert Woodfox in solitary confinement for more than four decades clearly amounts to torture and it should be lifted immediately.”

Although Albert has not had any disciplinary infractions in decades, and prison mental health records confirm that he is neither a danger to himself or others, he continues to be held in a 6×9 foot cell for 23, sometimes 24 hours a day.  He is only allowed to leave the cell if chained at the ankles, wrists and waist, under escort, for up to one hour a day if weather allows in a small outdoor cage by himself.

For decades he’s been denied meaningful review of his isolation status:

“The only reason given for maintaining the men under these conditions has been due to the “nature of the original reason for lockdown.”

Amnesty International is firm in its belief that conditions for the men in CCR – 23 hour cellular confinement in stark, tiny cells; limited access to books, newspapers and TV; no opportunities for mental stimulation, work and education; occasional [non-contact] visits from friends and family and limited telephone calls – amounts to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.” 

Amnesty goes on to detail the human rights violations involved in such extreme confinement:

“The USA has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, both of which prohibit torture or other ill-treatment. The relevant treaty monitoring bodies (the Human Rights Committee and the Committee Against Torture) have found that prolonged solitary confinement an amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.  Both bodies have expressed concern that the harsh conditions of long-term isolation in some US segregation facilities are incompatible with the USA’s treaty obligations. 

Their treatment also contravenes the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. These and other relevant standards emphasize the importance of providing work and educational, recreational, religious and cultural activities for prisoners’ mental and physical wellbeing, as well as to prepare individuals for reintegration into society.”

We respectfully submit this statement with the hopes that you can use your legislative powers to put an end to long term solitary confinement.  Without uniform standards of the infractions serious enough to merit placement; a meaningful review process with outside oversight; and a grievance process, opportunities for socialization and education, and a clear written timeline and detailed action plan for the inmate’s release; this form of punishment serves no punitive or reformative purpose.  In our view it is the very definition of cruel and unusual punishment as defined by the Constitution. 

We believe that only by openly examining the failures and inequities of the criminal justice system in America can we restore integrity to that system.  We are grateful for your efforts to do just that today.

Sincerely,
The 2 Surviving Members of “The Angola 3”
Robert King and Albert Woodfox

Keep in Touch with Albert:

Albert Woodfox #72148            
David Wade Correctional Center        
N1 A3                                                      
670 Bell Hill Road                                    
Homer, LA  71040                                  

ROBERT KING IN THE NEWS:  Tout Le Monde En Parle  II  Interview by Canadian Prison Radio Show  II  Morning News Montreal Televison Interview  II  La Presse: En croisade contre le milieu carcéral américain  II  Montreal Gazette Interview  II  Le Devoir: 29 ans d’isolement en prison  II  BBC News: Scientists call solitary confinement ‘damaging and unnecessary’  II  Japan Times / AFP: In prisons, solitary takes toll on minds  II  VIDEO: Science Magazine Live Chat w/ Robert King; Is Solitary Confinement Torture?  II  CNN: 29 Years in a Box  

(PHOTO: Robert King w/ filmmaker Ron Harpelle at the Toronto Black Film Festival. View more photos below.)

(PHOTO: Robert King and Ron Harpelle w/ Kathleen Cleaver at the Montreal Black Film Festival.)

As announced in our last newsletter, the Angola 3’s Robert King has been traveling in the US, speaking in Chicago about solitary confinement at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in Canada alongside screenings of the film Hard Time.

Three videos are embedded below. First is the original trailer for Hard Time. Second is an additional teaser of Hard Time, with French captions. Third is the full length version of Ron Harpelle’s earlier film, which he says led him to Robert King and Hard Time, entitled In Security, with footage from Angola Prison in Louisiana.

Hard Time – promo from Shebafilms Kelly Saxberg on Vimeo.

Temps dur promo from Shebafilms Kelly Saxberg on Vimeo.

In Security from Shebafilms Kelly Saxberg on Vimeo.

Featured below are photos from King’s appearance at the Toronto Black Film Festival, first published on the Facebook pages of Hard Time and the Toronto Film Festival.

Below are some photos from Robert King’s appearance at Fade to Black, the Black Film Festival in Montreal. View all of the photos here.

(PHOTO: On behalf of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, Rev. Dr. Patricia Bates speaks in support of Albert Woodfox at the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge on October 21, 2013.)

A Moral Outrage: Albert Woodfox’s 41 Years in Solitary Confinement, Despite Three Overturned Convictions 
–An interview with Rev. Dr. Patricia Teel Bates

By Angola 3 News

This past Fall, Herman Wallace of the Angola 3 made news headlines around the world when his conviction was overturned and he was dramatically released from prison after 41 years in solitary confinement. At the time of his release on October 1, 2013 he had been fighting terminal liver cancer for several months. Three days later, on Oct. 4, Herman was surrounded by loved ones as he passed on at a friend’s house in New Orleans, Louisiana.

As reported by Democracy Now, one of the final things that Herman said was, “I am free. I am free.” Twelve years previously in 2001,  after 29 years in solitary confinement, Robert H. King was the first of the Angola 3 to be released. Today, Albert Woodfox remains the sole Angola 3 member still in prison.  Currently housed in solitary confinement and forced to endure routine body cavity searches at David Wade Correctional Center in Homer, LA, Albert’s conviction has now been overturned three times.

On Oct. 15, Amnesty International declared: “Herman died a free man. Let’s help Albert live as one.” Amnesty’s call to action quoted a message from Herman released during his final few weeks: “I want the world to know that I am an innocent man and that Albert Woodfox is innocent as well…The state may have stolen my life, but my spirit will continue to struggle along with Albert and the many comrades that have joined us along the way here in the belly of the beast.”

(PHOTO: Herman on left, with Albert on right)

For several years, Amnesty International had already been calling for both Albert and Herman’s release from solitary confinement, culminating with the hand-delivery of a 67,000 signature petition at the State Capitol in Baton Rouge, LA on April 17, 2012 (watch video).  When Albert’s conviction was overturned for a third time on February 26, 2013, Amnesty began an online campaign directed towards Louisiana Attorney General James Caldwell, urging him to not appeal the overturned conviction. Not suprisingly, AG Caldwell appealed the overturned conviction. Somewhat unexpectedly, AG Caldwell also sent an email to each person that had signed onto Amnesty’s campaign audaciously claiming that both Albert and Herman “have never been in solitary confinement,” prompting responses from Amnesty International, Robert King, and MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry.

In their statement, Amnesty also cited “significant flaws in the legal processes that have kept both Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace behind bars. These flaws include inadequate legal counsel, prosecutorial misconduct, lack of physical evidence, potentially exculpatory evidence lost by the State, evidence that the key eyewitness testimony was paid for in bribes by the State, other eyewitnesses’ retracting their testimony, and now racial discrimination. To appeal this latest ruling would compound injustice and delay the legal process by years, as the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals would have to rule before justice could be served.”

Public pressure supporting Albert and Herman intensified on June 24 when we received the sad news about Herman’s being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. Amnesty responded by urging supporters to send personal letters to Herman, and by calling for his release from prison on humanitarian grounds.

(PHOTO: Robert H. King met with US Congressman John Conyers in May, 2013.)

On July 12, a letter citing the Angola 3 case was sent to the Department of Justice by Congressmen John Conyers, Jerrold Nadler, Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, and Cedric Richmond, calling for an investigation of the Louisiana prison system. That same day, just hours after the letter’s release, LA’s Hunt prison reduced Herman Wallace’s classification from maximum to medium security and transferred him out of solitary confinement into the more humane conditions of a 10-bunk dorm inside the prison hospital, where he had access to a day room, and did not have to wear leg irons. Because of the transfer, Herman’s quality of life was improved during his last few months.

On Oct. 7, just three days after Herman died, The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan E. Méndez, called for Albert Woodfox’s immediate release from solitary, declaring that “four decades in solitary confinement can only be described as torture.” A week later, on Oct. 15, Amnesty International escalated their campaign supporting Albert by now calling for his immediate release from prison altogether. On Oct. 21, the petition first started by Amnesty in February, 2013 was hand-delivered with over 50,000 signatures urging the Attorney General to drop the appeal of Albert’s overturned conviction. This petition remains active today for those who have not yet joined Amnesty’s call to action.

At an unrelated hearing on Nov. 13, Albert testified before the same U.S. District Judge, James Brady, who has twice overturned Albert’s conviction. As Lauren McGaughy reported for the Times-Picayune, this hearing was for Albert “to argue against what he says are daily strip and cavity searches he undergoes at the hands of prison guards. Woodfox and his legal team say the searches are in violation of a 1978 consent decree issued by then-U.S. District Court Judge Daniel W. LeBlanc that ruled these searches violated the rights of inmates and must be curtailed and, in many cases, ceased.”

An editorial written for the Times-Picayune by Jasmine Heiss of Amnesty International, remarked that “in a strange twist of irony, it was Mr. Woodfox’s previous lawsuit against the state that set this precedent.” Heiss wrote further that the 1978 precedent resulting from Albert’s lawsuit, “which lasted more than 30 years, came to an abrupt end when Judge LeBlanc died in March, and the strip and cavity searches quickly resumed both for Mr. Woodfox and others housed on his tier at David Wade Correctional Center. Mr. Woodfox endures strip searches as often as six times a day. He and his attorneys tried to resolve this without litigation for months to no avail.  Now they have turned to the court to step in.” Judge Brady’s ruling on this matter is still pending, while Albert remains in solitary and the routine strip searches continue.

(PHOTO: A3 supporters at the Court on Jan. 7)

It was against this backdrop that Amnesty once again called for Albert’s release when on January 7, oral arguments were held before the 5th Circuit Court regarding Albert’s third overturned conviction. At the press conference held outside the court building, speaking on behalf of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) was Rev. Dr. Patricia Teel Bates, a professor emeritus of English who taught at Louisiana State University in Shreveport for 32 years. Additionally, she is an ordained United Methodist minister serving in Homer, Louisiana through Seeds of Light, a nonprofit prison ministry she founded.

Standing outside the Fifth Circuit Court building, Rev. Dr. Bates declared:

“As a faith leader, I am here to share the religious community’s strong support for the immediate release of Mr. Albert Woodfox, and to call for an end to the immorality and inhumanity of his confinement…Last year, we witnessed the inhumane treatment of Mr. Herman Wallace, released just days before his passing after over forty-years in solitary confinement. The experience of Mr. Wallace, and Mr. King with whom I stand today, tells a devastating tale of the immorality and indignity of our justice system. Even as I speak, we remember that over 80,000 men, women and youth in U.S. prisons, jails and detention centers are subjected to solitary confinement on any given day, detained in a cell alone for 23 hours a day for months, years, decades. Such conditions have long been considered a form of torture. People of faith recognize that solitary confinement denies the essential God-given need for community and destroys not only the individuals subjected to such conditions but also our families, communities and the loved ones of those subjected to such inhumane treatment.”

In this interview with Rev. Dr. Bates, she discusses the Jan. 7 hearing as well as a recent order banning her from David Wade Correction Center, where Albert is housed, in her hometown of Homer, LA.

(PHOTO: Artwork displayed at Herman’s memorial service, w/ Herman calling for Albert’s release. See more photos of the service by Ann Harkness.)

Angola 3 News:         Could you please tell us about your work over the years inside prisons and around criminal justice issues?

Patricia Bates:           Over the last forty-two years I have volunteered off and on in prisons and jails, mainly in NW Louisiana in various capacities as a literacy and GED tutor and  also as a worship leader, supporter of inmate organizations, and Kairos (Outside and Inside) retreat leader and supporter.

About ten years ago, after moving to Homer, near David Wade Correctional Center, I created a nonprofit interfaith restorative justice ministry that has helped to fund Victim-Offender Dialogues thru the Louisiana Department of Corrections.  Our nonprofit, Seeds of Light, provides (1) support of various kinds to offenders’ families, (2) ministers in reentry prison/jail programs, and (3) a variety of services to children and families living in at-risk neighborhoods. We operate a food bank and thrift store and hold regular worship services for those affected by incarceration.  In 2009 Seeds of Light was recognized with a Governor’s award for excellence for humanitarian service to the community.

Additionally, as an ordained deacon in The United Methodist Church and the Peace with Justice Coordinator for Louisiana’s United Methodists, I advocate at the national level on a variety of restorative justice issues including opposition to the Death Penalty through People of Faith Against the Death Penalty (PFADP) and opposition to extended solitary confinement through the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT).

A3N:   When did you first begin speaking out about Albert Woodfox’s case?

PB:      NRCAT asked that I advocate on behalf of Mr. Albert Woodfox and asked me to serve as NRCAT spokesperson on his behalf at the October 21, 2013, Baton Rouge press conference and at the January 7, 2014, press conference in New Orleans following the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals hearing.

In both cases I spoke as a matter of conscience based on biblical social justice principles. Jesus said that what we do to the least of these, the poor, the hungry, the imprisoned, etc. we do to Him. I am a passionate believer in the sacred worth of every human being.  As a person of faith.  I must do all within my power to see that our justice system operates out of the principles of restorative justice rather than retributive justice.

Extended use of solitary confinement makes healthy restoration a near impossibility. For that reason, I am convinced that extended use of solitary confinement constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. In short, it constitutes torture.

A3N:   When were you first notified that you were not allowed to return to David Wade Correctional Center?

PB:      Shortly after the Oct. 21, 2013 press conference I received a phone call from David Wade Correctional Center that I could not continue to serve as a volunteer there.

A3N:   Were you given a reason for the dismissal?

PB:      I was given minimal explanation but can only assume, given the time line, that my advocacy somehow violated prison guidelines for volunteers.

A3N:   How will this dismissal from David Wade affect your prison ministry going forward?

PB:      As a matter of conscience I must speak up when I perceive an injustice such as Mr. Woodfox’s confinement to solitary for over forty years. Animal rights advocates would be outraged if animals received such treatment. How can we turn a blind eye and refuse to speak out when children of God are treated so inhumanely?

My dismissal from Wade cannot short-circuit my faith commitment to continue to work for justice. It simply means I am to work on the outside rather than on the inside.

A3N:   This week, on January 7, you attended Albert’s oral arguments before the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Do you have any reflections on what transpired there?

PB:      As I sat in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and listened to arguments from both sides, I listened very closely with the assumption that both sides were represented by people of good will who simply had different views regarding the issue of whether or not objective race-neutral criteria had been used in the grand jury selection process in West Feliciana Parish in the case of Mr. Woodfox.

When the issue of literacy was raised, I became especially interested as I have a Ph.D. in English and taught college-level English, in addition to prison literacy, for over thirty years of my professional career before becoming an ordained minister. I am keenly aware of the unjust bias that is attached to how minorities use the English language and the unfair disadvantage this can create in minority communities.

Also, I am keenly aware that voter registration pools are sometimes inadequate to provide a race-neutral grand jury of one’s peers.

These observations, along with my faith commitment, compel me to continue to actively support Mr. Woodfox’s appeal for equal justice under the law.

His conviction has been overturned three times. Why do authorities persist in keeping him in lock down? Only they can say.

There is still time to take action for Albert!

–Angola 3 News is a project of the International Coalition to Free the Angola 3. Our website is www.angola3news.com where we provide the latest news about the Angola 3. We are also creating our own media projects, which spotlight the issues central to the story of the Angola 3, like racism, repression, prisons, human rights, solitary confinement as torture, and more.

VIEW / DOWNLOAD:  A3 info flyer for Jan. 7  II  Listen to audio from the oral arguments  II  Rev. Patricia Bates / NRCAT statement

(PHOTO: A3 supporters at the Court on Jan. 7)

For those who were unable to attend, Albert’s oral argument in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, defending Judge Brady’s decision to overturn his conviction for a third time, is now complete (click here to listen).  As expected, the proceedings were brief and rather mystifying.  It was clear that most of the judges had already spent a great deal of time reviewing and considering the case, and were just tying up a few arcane legal loose ends.

The State’s Attorney General Buddy Caldwell watched carefully as his team urged the Court to reverse Judge Brady’s decision and reinstate Albert’s conviction based on their now overruled version of the statistical story, and a misplaced deference to the broad powers given by the AEDPA.  As you may recall, the AEDPA is a federal law used as the primary reason for reinstating Albert’s conviction in 2010.  It allows Federal Courts to defer judgment to previous Louisiana rulings against Albert if those rulings were not “unreasonable” or “contrary to clearly established federal law” – an insidiously squishy standard.

Albert’s supporters filled the courtroom completely and his legal team deftly rebutted the State’s claims and fielded a handful of questions from the 3-judge panel, which included Judges Jolly and Higginbotham (both Reagan appointees), and Judge Southwick (a George W. Bush appointee).  Judge Jolly was tied up in transit so participated only by phone and did not ask any questions of either side.

A decision is expected in coming months.  Although it took the 5th Circuit almost a year and a half to rule last time, we are more confident than ever that a swift decision will soon come in Albert’s favor, finally releasing this innocent man from the solitary cell he was unjustly relegated to now nearly 42 long years ago.

The arguments were covered by the AP and in the Times Picayune both before and after.  We will update you as soon as we have any additional information.

With hope for freedom.