House panel to hold hearings in Angola 3 case

• By JORDAN BLUM
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Apr 30, 2008 - Page: 4A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The state House Judiciary Committee will begin holding hearings in May to demand answers in the case of two men imprisoned in solitary confinement for 36 years.

Judiciary Chairman Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, on Tuesday cited the “massive amount of evidence” indicating their innocence in the 1972 stabbing death of a guard during a riot at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

Prisoners Herman “Hooks” Wallace and Albert Woodfox, along with Robert King, who was released in 2001, are known as the “Angola 3.”

They claim they were illegally targeted for starting a prison Black Panthers chapter during the Civil Rights era and have unfairly paid for the injustice ever since.

Richmond brought about 25,000 petition signatures to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s office on Tuesday expressing the “concern and outrage” about the case worldwide.

In fact, a British film crew is making a documentary about the case.

“The state is too silent on this issue,” Richmond said. “So that’s what we’re going to have — official government action.

“We’re fresh off the Jena 6. Now, we’re on the Angola 3,” Richmond said. “At some point, we’re going to have to stand up as a state.”

Jindal did not respond Tuesday to two requests for comment.

His press secretary, Melissa Sellers, said Jindal is letting the court appeals and the state Pardon Board processes play out first.

Richmond said he wants Jindal to push for pardons for the men.

Richmond discussed evidence of a bloody fingerprint at the murder scene that did not match either Wallace’s or Woodfox’s prints.

“I know solitary confinement for 36 years is wrong. I know we want to find the real killer,” Richmond said. “What we don’t know is why the investigation didn’t run its course.”