Set Them Free Albert Woodfox Herman Wallace

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SET THEM FREE ALBERT WOODFOX HERMAN WALLACE
SET THEM FREE ALBERT WOODFOX HERMAN WALLACE : Cleveland IMC (((i)))

by ANGOLA 3 Tuesday, Jul. 01, 2008 at 2:03 PM


Marina Drummer, a strong and long time supporter of the Angola 3, writes: “On Monday, Louisiana Justice turned a blind eye to its own injustice. Despite asking that evidence be taken in the case of State of Louisiana v. Herman Wallace, they ignored the magistrate’s findings that Herman was convicted on the basis of favors being offered to the state’s witnesses for their testimony implicating Herman.

“The decision was 2 -1 denying relief. The majority failed to give any reason for their decision, while Judge Welch had the courage to say, ‘There was a reasonable likelihood that the verdict would have different had the jury been aware of the promise and favors to the state’s witness.’ He acknowledged that the state’s failure to disclose this information violated Herman’s constitutional rights.

“The majority did not choose to argue that the facts as set out by the Magistrate and Judge Welch weren’t correct, they just decided that these uncontradicted facts did not warrant a new trial, without giving a reason for their decision. Thus they sanctioned the long established pattern in the country of using promises to snitches to obtain convictions regardless of the truth. Outside the U.S. Department of Justice facing the R.F. Kennedy Courtyard is carved the statement, ‘The United States wins its point whenever justice is done its citizens in the courts.’ America lost today.

“However, Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox, the remaining two of the Angola 3, will not quit seeking justice. They are innocent and those who have pledged to come to their aid will not fail in their mission. They and we will continue appealing their verdicts, continue helping the murdered guard’s widow find the truth, and continue to speak out against a justice system that places old men in solitary who are not a threat to society, uses snitches and informants to obtain convictions regardless of the truth, and incarcerates individuals whose political and religious beliefs do not conform to those in power.

“We call on all political, religious and moral authorities in this country to work for their release. More importantly, we call on every citizen in this country to join this effort. As long as Herman and Albert are in prison, we are not free.”

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Breaking free of the past
Breaking free of the past | Metro.co.uk

Thursday, June 26, 2008
herman built

'Legality and morality are not friends; they don't mix in the courtroom,' says Robert King, a softly spoken man with a terrible tale. The 66-year-old with a careworn face and Louisiana drawl spent 29 years in solitary confinement in a US jail, locked in a 6ft by 9ft cell for 23 hours a day, for a crime he did not commit.

'Sometimes the spirit is stronger than the circumstances,' he says, when asked how he survived. 'My body was in the cell but my mind was beyond it: I had beautiful dreams. I was in prison but I wasn't going to let prison get in me.'

New Orleans native King, who had been convicted of armed robbery, was framed for the murder of a fellow inmate.

Until they were moved to a shared dormitory a month ago, Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox had also been held in Closed Cell Restriction for nearly 36 years, the longest serving solitary prisoners in the world. They had similarly been convicted of the murder of a white prison guard - a crime even the guard's widow doubts they carried out.

While the current focus is on the justice America is meting out around the world - in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and Bagram airbase - the so-called Angola Three stand as testament to the way the US treats its own citizens.

Why were they singled out? Because in the early 1970s, the previously non-activist Wallace, Woodfox and King established a Black Panther chapter in Angola - Louisiana's notorious, then-segregated state penitentiary.

They used civil disobedience and mass hunger strikes to demand improvements for the majority-black prisoners, who were being subjected to brutal conditions of racist violence on the plantation-turned-prison farm, including a sickening prisoner rape trade.

'The Panthers were America's biggest internal threat; they would have captivated poor people and reminded them they could be their own liberators,' says King, whose conviction was overturned in 2001.

Wallace and Woodfox are recognised as political prisoners/prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International. One of their most devoted advocates was Dame Anita Roddick, who died last year.

'Mum was their umbilical cord to the outside world,' says Dame Anita's daughter, Sam, who 'inherited' Herman and Albert.

'I met Albert for the first time a month after she died. She had established an extraordinary relationship with these men. Her passion has been transferred to me: the injustice of their situation reeks.'

Roddick and all those involved understand the case of the Angola Three goes beyond the specific plight of these men. The US has the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world (one in every 100 adults).

African-Americans are hardest hit; black men are imprisoned at a rate six times greater than their white counterparts. The effect on society of such statistics is pressing. But with civil liberties being eroded in the US - and here - everyone is vulnerable.

'Herman and Albert's justice is our freedom because if the law can be perverted to that extent, none of us are safe,' says Roddick. She does, however, draw inspiration from the cause: 'They did change the prison system in Angola: if we can utilise the system to show true justice, we can change things.'

Another person finding hope in their situation is American artist Jackie Sumell, who started writing to Wallace and Woodfox in 2002. For a course project, she asked Wallace (now 67): 'What kind of house does a man who has lived in a 6ft by 9ft cell for 30 years dream of?'

Six years of letters and drawings have resulted in The House That Herman Built, a touring exhibition currently presented in London by students from the Royal College of Art.

'The first thing he said was: "I never dream of a house; I've always thought of myself in the bush - on the battlefield,"' says Sumell. But imagination soon took hold: 'We had the hardest time defining space but details were minutely described: tabasco sauce in the pantry; the position of pictures on walls.'

Wallace wants a timber house so he can set it alight if under attack. There is a 6ft by 9ft bathtub, shagpile carpets, an underground bunker and a guesthouse for out-of-town activists. Sumell is raising money to build his home in New Orleans.

The exhibition also contains Sumell's recreation of Wallace's cell. The stark representation of where these three men have been kept has the force of a punch and provides a moving validation of everyone's struggle to see the Angola Three free at last.

For more information visit THE HOUSE THAT HERMAN BUILT, Criminal Injustice in Louisiana Continues and Who Is Herman Wallace? The House That Herman Built is at 29 Thurloe Place, London SW7 until July 5. THE HOUSE THAT HERMAN BUILT



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