Judge Orders Release of Angola 3 Defendant

by Matt Kelley · 2008-12-02 15:58:00 UTC
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Albert Woodfox could be free as soon as next week, after spending 37 years in Louisiana's notorious Angola prison - most of it in solitary confinement. A federal judge ordered Woodfox's release today while he awaits a third trial in the stabbing death of a prison guard, a crime he has always said he didn't commit.

Woodfox was in prison for armed robbery and had started an Angola chapter of the Black Panther Party when he was convicted of the 1972 stabbing a prison guard to death with another man, Herman Wallace. Robert Wilkerson was also linked to the murder even though he wasn't in the prison at the time of the crime. The three men would spend almost every day of the next three years in solitary confinement - locked in 6-by-9 cells for 23 hours a day.

The cases of the three men - known as the Angola 3 - have gained hundreds of supporters over the years as they have fought their convictions. Wilkerson pled guilty to a lesser charge and was released in 2001. Woodfox could be free on bail within a week. Wallace remains in prison but also has an appeal pending.

Read today's story here, and more about the Angola 3 on wikipedia.

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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