The case of the Angola 3

Mural in New Orleans supports freedom for the Angola 3. Photo: Elizabeth Jeffers

The Angola 3 are three men who have been incarcerated for decades in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. All are former members of the Black Panther Party.

Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox were falsely convicted of murdering a white prison guard in 1972, a time when Angola was a cauldron of racism and violence. It was known as the “bloodiest prison in America.”

The state held Wallace and Woodfox in solitary confinement for over 32 years. They are still behind bars. Robert King Wilkerson, the third member of the group, was released in 2001 after 29 years of solitary confinement.

Despite demonstrable evidence of their innocence, Louisiana’s courts have refused to consider their appeals.

Because they are politicized Black men who refuse to acquiesce to oppression, the Louisiana penal system hopes to torture them until they die. Wallace and Woodfox are subjected to constant harassment and retribution from the mostly white prison administration.

The Angola prison is a former slave plantation named “Angola” after the national origin of the slaves who were kidnapped and taken there. After the Civil War, it became a prison and operates on the plantation model to this day.

Eighty percent of the 5,000 prisoners at Angola prison are African American. Ninety percent are serving sentences that will keep them there for life. Most spend their days in the fields, working for pennies an hour to harvest produce that the state sells at a large profit.

Robert King Wilkerson, one of the Angola 3, was released in 2001. Photo: Mark Eastman

Wallace and Woodfox both have criminal post-conviction appeals pending. The state is dragging them through the courts at a painfully slow pace. The ACLU has filed a civil suit on their behalf, citing cruel and unusual punishment and lack of due process.

Supporters are hopeful that the civil case could set a legal precedent for limits on confinement in solitary and supermax conditions.

The author is a member of the National Committee to Free the Angola 3. For more information on the Angola 3 or to get involved in the campaign to free them, visit www.angola3.org.