Angola 3 News: Albert's Book Tour and Zulu Whitmore Update

Monday, April 29, 2019

Albert's Book Tour and Zulu Whitmore Update

(PHOTO: Albert Woodfox book event at the New Orleans Public Library. Photo by New Orleans Innocence Project.)

A3 Newsletter, April 29, 2019:
Ending Solitary One Book Signing at a Time

Solitary is now in its second printing! Albert has hardly had a minute to rest and the tour continues!

Early May finds him heading west for a book signing at Eso Wan books in Los Angeles, then north to Berkeley for two events at the Bay Area Book Festival, then on to Sacramento to join Angola 3 supporters, BJ and Gail at Underground Books.

After a scant week at home, he'll be heading to Miami to participate in a federal defenders conference and will do a book signing at Books and Books in Coral Gables in advance.

Returning from Florida, after a week at home, Albert will be heading to England to take part in the Hay Book Festival. Summer slows down a little but there will be a trip to Australia in August. Much more to come, but these are enough details for now. We hope that all of the many Angola 3 supporters across the country will be able to join Albert as he blows through their town.

We also hope you'll read through to the section on Kenny "Zulu" Whitmore--another case of total injustice.

The Book Tour Continues:
In May, Albert is traveling to Los Angeles, Berkeley, Sacramento, and Florida

Albert Woodfox's memoir, entitled Solitary, was released on March 5, 2019. Albert's book tour across the US began that month in Tucson, Arizona. Most recently, Albert spoke at Yale and Princeton Universities. Next month, Albert will be in California and Florida (see the book tour schedule below).

The two photos above and below, were taken by the New Orleans Innocence Project during a March 20 book event with Albert at the New Orleans Public Library that also featured the Innocence Project's Emily Maw.

Solitary's release has attracted a wide range of media coverage, including radio interviews with Democracy Now (parts one and two), WHYY Radio Times, and WWNO New Orleans Public Radio,

Newspaper articles ranged from local publications like the New Orleans Times-Picayune and New Orleans Advocate, to national media like the Washington Post / Associated Press and New York Times, including the Times Sunday Book Review.

Most recently Albert was featured by the Australia Broadcast Corporation and The Australian. A compilation of other recent news stories can be viewed here.

--To learn more about Solitary, including the latest information about Albert's book tour, please visit the publisher's website. The top of the publisher's website features links to several different booksellers from whom you can purchase Albert's book, including Indie Bound, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

Upcoming Book Tour Dates

Los Angeles, California: May 2, 6:00 PM
Eso Won Books, 4327 Degnan Blvd

Berkeley, California: May 4, 3:15 PM
Bay Area Book Festival, Berkeley City College Auditorium
"Beyond the Bars: Alternatives to Prison and Punishment"

Berkeley, California: May 5, 5:00 PM
Bay Area Book Festival, Freight & Salvage
"The Unbreakable Human Spirit: Albert Woodfox on Survival in Solitary," in conversation with Shane Bauer

Sacramento, California: May 7, 6:00 PM
Underground Books, 2814 35th Street

Coral Gables, Florida: May 16, 7:00 PM
Books & Books Coral Gables, 265 Aragon Avenue

Upcoming Court Date: Please Support Kenny "Zulu" Whitmore

Supporters of Angola prisoner Kenny "Zulu" Whitmore report:

"There was a long-awaited Court Hearing on April 2nd, 2019, in which Zulu was present, with support of his family and friends. In this hearing, the State was ORDERED by the Judge to have all of the withheld evidence tested by July 22nd, which is the next court date. So let's pack the courtroom on July 22nd!"

--For more information, please visit the website maintained by Zulu's supporters, here.

Write Him:
Kenny Zulu Whitmore
86468 - Cypress#3
LA State Prison
Angola, LA 70712
U.S.A.

(PHOTO: Albert Woodfox and Robert King show support for their friend Zulu during a November 2016 visit to London. Here they are standing in front of the Zulu Taxi, an art project designed by Carrie Reichart a longtime supporter of Zulu and the Angola 3.)

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Angola 3 Basics

(Download a flyer version of this fact sheet here.)

46 years ago, deep in rural Louisiana, three young black men were silenced for trying to expose continued segregation, systematic corruption, and horrific abuse in the biggest prison in the US, an 18,000 acre former slave plantation called Angola.

Peaceful, non-violent protest in the form of hunger and work strikes organized by inmates caught the attention of Louisiana’s elected leaders and local media in the early 1970s. They soon called for investigations into a host of unconstitutional and extraordinarily inhumane practices commonplace in what was then the “bloodiest prison in the South.” Eager to put an end to outside scrutiny, prison officials began punishing inmates they saw as troublemakers.

At the height of this unprecedented institutional chaos, Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox, and Robert King were charged with murders they did not commit and thrown into 6x9 foot solitary cells where they remained for decades.

Their struggle for justice continued until Robert was released in 2001, Herman in 2013, and Albert in 2016.

Despite a number of reforms achieved in the mid-70s, many officials repeatedly ignored both evidence of misconduct, and of innocence.

The State’s case was riddled with inconsistencies, obfuscations, and missteps. A bloody print at the murder scene did not match Herman, Albert or anyone charged with the crime and was never compared with the limited number of other prisoners who had access to the dormitory on the day of the murder. In 2008, NPR asked Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell why the state refused to test the print. "A fingerprint can come from anywhere," Caldwell explained. "We're not going to be fooled by that."

Potentially exculpatory DNA evidence was “lost” by prison officials—including fingernail scrapings from the victim and barely visible “specks” of blood on clothing alleged to have been worn by Albert.

Both Herman and Albert had multiple alibi witnesses with nothing to gain who testified they were far away from the scene when the murder occurred.

In contrast, several State witnesses lied under oath about rewards for their testimony. The prosecution’s star witness Hezekiah Brown told the jury: “Nobody promised me nothing.” But new evidence showed Hezekiah, a convicted serial rapist serving life, agreed to testify only in exchange for a pardon, a weekly carton of cigarettes, TV, birthday cakes, and other luxuries.

“Hezekiah was one you could put words in his mouth,” the Warden reminisced chillingly in an interview about the case years later.

Notably, Teenie Rogers, the widow of the victim, prison guard Brent Miller, after reviewing the evidence believed Herman and Albert’s trials were unfair, expressed grave doubts about their guilt, and called upon officials to find the real killer. "“Each time I look at the evidence in this case, I remember there is no proof that the men charged with Brent’s death are the ones who actually killed him. It’s easy to get caught up in vengeance and anger, but when I look at the facts, they just do not add up,” said Rogers in 2013.

Herman’s conviction was finally overturned in October 2013 by a Federal Judge. Although his trial was riddled with evidence of prosecutorial misconduct and other constitutional violations, it was the systematic exclusion of women from his jury in violation of the 14th Amendment that freed him. Unfortunately he was released in the late stages of advanced liver cancer and only experienced 3 days of freedom. Sadly for Herman, justice delayed was justice denied.

Albert’s conviction was overturned three times by judges citing racial discrimination, prosecutorial misconduct, inadequate defense, and suppression of exculpatory evidence. While the case worked its way through endless appeals, Louisiana officials refused to release Albert from solitary, even when no longer convicted of the crime, because “there’s been no rehabilitation” from “practicing Black Pantherism.”4

In June 2015, a Federal Judge courageously ordered Albert's immediate release and barred a retrial stressing the “Court's lack of confidence in the State to provide a fair third trial." This extraordinary remedy was also frozen pending yet another series of appeals.

Finally, Albert was released in February of 2016, 43 years and 10 months after first being put in isolation for a crime he didn’t commit.

Louisiana today has the highest incarceration rate in the US—thus the highest in the world.

Three-fourths of the 5,000+ prisoners at Angola are African American. And due to some of the harshest sentencing practices in the nation, 97% will die there.

Reminiscent of a bygone era, inmates still harvest cotton, corn and wheat for 4 to 20 cents an hour under the watchful eye of armed guards on horseback.

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 must not wait.

We can make a difference.

As the A3 did years before, now is the time to challenge injustice and demand that the innocent and wrongfully incarcerated be freed.

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

In 2000, Herman, Albert and Robert filed a civil lawsuit challenging the inhumane and increasingly pervasive practice of long-term solitary confinement. Magistrate Judge Dalby described their decades of isolation as “so far beyond the pale” she could not find “anything even remotely comparable in the annals of American jurisprudence.” Over the course of 16 years, this seminal case detailed unconstitutionally cruel and unusual treatment and systematic due process violations at the hands of Louisiana officials and inspired worldwide action to end long term solitary.

Monday, April 29, 2019

Albert's Book Tour and Zulu Whitmore Update

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Enslavement, past and present--from the Middle Passage to US prisons today