After 40 Years in Solitary Confinement Court says Angola 3 member Albert Woodfox's conviction should be overturned

From [HERE] The 5th Circuit Court of appeals on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014, overturned [pdf] the conviction of Angola 3 member Albert Woodfox for his alleged involvement in the 1972 murder of prison guard Brent Miller. 

After 40-plus years in solitary confinement, the third and final imprisoned member of the Angola 3, Albert Woodfox, might soon be headed home.

A federal appeals court on Thursday (Nov. 20) upheld a decision to overturn Woodfox's conviction related to the 1972 stabbing of a Louisiana State Penitentiary prison guard, Brent Miller, according to federal court documents.

The decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals was unanimous, but the state could still appeal it. Thursday's decision upheld part of District Court Judge James J. Brady's ruling, which found racial discrimination in the selection of the grand jury foreperson in a 1998 retrail of Woodfox's original conviction. 

"Now the struggle will be in the court of public opinion, to try and get the state to resist their... desire to appeal," said Jackie Sumell, a New Orleans activist and friend of Woodfox. 

The state could also re-indict Woodfox and re-try his case. Sumell noted, though, that most --if not all -- the witnesses are dead, and Woodfox now has a team of lawyers from across the country defending him.

Woodfox's possible release could take months or possibly years, depending on if the state files any number of appeals. 

But despite the "frustrating black hole" of not knowing exactly when he might be able to be released from custody, Sumell said Thursday's ruling was good news for those fighting the injustice Woodfox endured. 

"I'm so happy," she continued to repeat. 

Woodfox, 67, is the only member of the Angola 3 still behind bars.

His designation as a member of the Angola 3 stems from what Angola 3 supporters believe are wrongful convictions for prison murders in which Woodfox and two other prisoners were implicated for the purpose of silencing their activism. The International Coalition to Free the Angola 3 believes the men essentially became political prisoners for organizing an official Black Panther Party chapter inside the prison, which led hunger strikes and other demonstrations opposing inhumane prison conditions. Those conditions, in the early 1970s, included continued segregation, corruption and "systematic prison rape," coalition manager Tory Pegram said. 

Herman Wallace, a fellow Angola 3 member, was released in October of last year, two days before his death from complications of liver cancer. 

Robert King, the third member of the Angola Three who was convicted of killing a fellow inmate, was exonerated and released from prison in 2001 after 29 years in solitary. King remains active in the campaign to release Woodfox from prison and end the practice of solitary confinement. 

Woodfox's 1974 murder conviction was first overturned in 1992 by a state court due to "systemtic discrimination." He was then reindicted in 1993 by a new grand jury and reconvicted five years later.

But District Judge Brady overturned this second conviction in 2008, stating Woodfox's defense counsel was ineffective. The state appealed, and the case made its way for the first time to the 5th Circuit.

Once there, the court reversed Brady's ruling and determined that while his trial "was not perfect," Woodfox couldn't prove there would have been a different outcome with different counsel.

Woodfox's attorneys then focused in on the discrimination issue, arguing there were also issues with the 1993 indictment because black grand jury foreman were woefully underrepresented in West Feliciana Parish in the previous 13 years.

Brady again agreed, overturning Woodfox's conviction a second time in May 2012. The case was kicked up to the 5th Circuit after the state appealed. 

Woodfox, of New Orleans, was originally sentenced to prison at Angola on charges of armed robbery. That sentence would have expired decades ago, Pegram said. Woodfox was at Angola only a few years before he was implicated, along with Wallace, in Miller's murder.