Crack becomes faultline in Angola 3 case

In the June 30 issue, Workers World reported news of the Angola 3 case: that the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a lower court to hear evidence about suppressed testimony during Herman Wal lace’s trial for the murder of a guard in Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, La.

Herman Wallace, Robert King Wilkerson and Albert Woodfox.

Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox and Robert King Wilkerson received more good news in late June. All three men are plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. The lawsuit charges the Louisiana Department of Corrections and the Angola Prison administration with the constitutional violations of cruel and unusual punishment and lack of due process, in regard to their over 33 years of solitary confinement in the hellhole of Angola prison.

The lawsuit was so strong that it prompted U.S. Magistrate Docia L. Dalby to write in her recent ruling, “The present matter, of course, involves confinements of 28 to nearly 33 years, durations so far beyond the pale that this Court has not found anything even remotely comparable in the annals of American jurisprudence.” But the ACLU was unable to continue litigating the case due to lack of resources. So the case had been inactive for the past few months.

Now the law firm of Holland & Knight has agreed to represent the Angola 3 in the civil lawsuit. George Kendall and Steve Hanlon will assume the roles of lead counsels. They will work with Nick Trenticosta serving as local counsel.

Kendall and Hanlon have a long history of civil-rights litigation. They head up the firm’s Community Services Team. A trial is anticipated for the end of this year.

In another important development, the United States Supreme Court ruled in late June that prison officials may not move an inmate into solitary confinement or lockdown without first providing the prisoner with both fair notice of why the classification might change and a chance to challenge the placement. This is a significant ruling, because for many years the courts did not recognize that a prisoner has a “liberty interest” in not being placed in severe living conditions.

Now that the court has recognized this right, all rights to due process and fundamental fairness must be provided. This ruling will greatly help win the Angola 3 case.

For more information on the case, visit the website www.angola3.org.

The writer is a leader of the National Coalition to Free the Angola 3.