Photo by William Widmer for the Innocence Project

Albert Woodfox Updates:

Died August 4, 2022 (75 years old)

“The Angola 3’s Albert Woodfox, who survived years of solitary confinement, dies” by Shauneen Miranda, NPR, August 5, 2022

Released from Prison on February 19, 2016 (43 years in solitary)

“‘Solitary’ Is an Uncommonly Powerful Memoir About Four Decades in Confinement” by Dwight Garner, The New York Times, March 4, 2019

Release Albert Woodfox: conviction overturned again

The Honorable James D. “Buddy” Caldwell
Attorney General of Louisiana
1885 North 3rd Street
Baton Rouge, LA 70802
Executive@ag.state.la.us

March 27, 2013

Dear Mr. Caldwell:

Let the federal district court’s ruling stand.

Once again Albert Woodfox’s conviction for the 1972 murder of a prison guard was overturned, this time on the basis of racial discrimination in the selection of the grand jury foreperson.

The court’s ruling adds to widespread concerns of significant flaws in the legal processes that have kept both Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace unjustifiably in prison for over 40 years. These flaws include:

• Inadequate legal counsel
• Prosecutorial misconduct
• Lack of physical evidence
• Potentially exculpatory evidence lost by the State
• Evidence that the key eyewitness testimony was paid for in bribes by the State
• Other eyewitnesses retracting their testimony
• Racial descrimination

Since his conviction, Albert Woodfox has been denied access to work, to group activities and to rehabilitation programs. The void of essential social, mental and emotional interactions has resulted in negative physical and psychological effects for this senior citizen just as it would for any person subjected to the same inhumane conditions.

The case of Albert Woodfox was investigated in the Democracy Now video, After 40 Years in Solitary, Angola 3 Prisoner Albert Woodfox Ordered Freed for 3rd Time in Louisiana, and in the documentary, In the Land of the Free…, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson.

Based on the above-mentioned legal-process flaws, any appeal of this ruling would be questionable; an appeal would compound injustice and further delay the ruling of the federal district court. Therefore, the State should release Albert Woodfox or move to retry him.

Please withdraw your intent to appeal and let the federal district court’s ruling stand.

(Based on a template by Amnesty International Urgent Action, a letter-writing network on behalf of people facing human rights abuses worldwide.)