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| New Appeal Filed in Long-Running Angola Prison Case |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 11/26/2002 |
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An inmate who has spent most of the past three decades in solitary confinement for the1972 stabbing death of a state prison officer is trying to have his conviction overturned for a second time. Albert Woodfox, 55, is serving a life sentence for the killing of Louisiana State Penitentiary security officer Brent Miller, who was stabbed to death at Angola during a period of racial unrest at the sprawling plantation prison. Woodfox and co-defendant Herman Wallace, 61, are also suing to get out of solitary confinement, where they have spent most of their time since Miller was killed on April 17, 1972. Wallace has a motion to overturn his original conviction pending in state court. Woodfox is now challenging his second conviction in Miller's slaying. Woodfox won a new trial during the 1990s, but was convicted a second time by a jury in Tangipahoa Parish and was re-sentenced to life without parole in 1999. In a motion filed in state district court in Amite, Woodfox claims that two of three living prosecution witnesses have recanted their testimony against him and Wallace. The motion also says Woodfox has identified a new witness who says a now-deceased prisoner admitted killing the officer. Woodfox's defense team has retained experts that can perform scientific tests on evidence that were not available or not performed in 1972, the motion says. The motion asks that the state be required to produce such evidence as fingernail scrapings taken from the victim and clothing items. In a federal court suit, Woodfox and Wallace claim their years in solitary confinement amount to cruel and unusual punishment. A federal magistrate recommended in March that their suit go forward. A third inmate, Robert King Wilkerson, was also held for years in solitary confinement. Wilkerson, who was convicted of killing another inmate during a 1973 prison brawl, claimed he was locked up because he had tried to give another prisoner legal assistance. Wilkerson was freed in February 2001 after a state judge overturned his conviction and he pleaded guilty to murder conspiracy. All three landed in Angola in the late 1960s for unrelated armed robberies. They met and formed a prison chapter of the Black Panthers, a militant group. Angola officials have defended the long-term confinement of Wallace, Wilkerson and Woodfox, the so-called 'Angola Three,' saying they were proven dangerous to staff members and other prisoners. Officials have said they are confined in conditions similar to death-row inmates, except they have more privileges. |
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