Angola 3 - Albert Woodfox Petition - Court hearing 3/3

From:    "Political Prisoner News" <ppnews@freedomarchives.org>
Date:    Wed, February 25, 2009

FREE THE ANGOLA 3!!  BRING PP'S WOODFOX AND WALLACE HOME NOW!!

Sign the petition
http://colorofchange.org/angola3/

Lets make the Angola 3 household names!

Albert Woodfox, political prisoner of the Angola 3, needs your
support. In July 2008 a Federal Judge (Brady) overturned Albert
Woodfox's conviction after a State Judicial Magistrate found his
trial was unfair due to inadequate representation, prosecutorial
misconduct, suppression of exculpatory evidence, and racial
discrimination in the grand jury selection process. The State
appealed this decision to the 5th Circuit Court of appeals and March
3rd are the oral arguments for that appeal.

36 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 first black
elected legislators and local media in the early 1970s. State
legislative leaders, along with the administration of a
newly-elected, reform-minded governor, called for investigations into
a host of unconstitutional practices and the extraordinarily cruel
and unusual treatment commonplace in the prison. In 1972 and 1973
prison officials, determined to put an end to outside scrutiny,
charged Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox, and Robert King with murders
they did not commit and threw them into 6x9 foot cells in solitary
confinement, for nearly 36 years. Robert was freed in 2001, but
Herman and Albert remain behind bars.

The oral arguments on March 3 are a very short and formal process.
Albert's attorneys will explain to the court why Judge Brady did the
right thing, and the State will try to argue he made a mistake in
overturning the conviction. Each side will argue for 20 min and then
the court will take anywhere from 1-6 months to issue their decision.
If the 5th Circuit agrees with Albert's attorneys and upholds Judge
Brady's ruling, then the State has 120 days to either retry or
release Albert. They have already vowed to retry him. If the 5th
Circuit agrees with the State, then the conviction is reinstated and
Albert would have to start the appeals process all over again with a
different claim if he wants to try to gain his freedom.

For more info
http://www.angola3action.org
http://www.angola3.org



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