article by Ed Pilkington via theguardian.com
Albert Woodfox, the last incarcerated member of the “Angola 3,” was released from prison on his 69thbirthday, reports CNN.
Woodfox was going to a third trial for the 1972 slaying of prison guard Brent Miller at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, but pleaded no contest on Friday to lesser charges, according to a statement.
“Although I was looking forward to proving my innocence at a new trial, concerns about my health and my age have caused me to resolve this case,” he said.
Woodfox, who many consider a political prisoner, had spent more than 43 years under solitary confinement for Miller’s death, a practice that many criminal justice advocates, human rights groups and the United Nations equate to torture.
Woodbox was the longest-standing solitary confinement prisoner in America, held in isolation in a six-by-nine-foot cell almost continuously for 43 years.
Woodfox has always professed his innocence and marked his 69th birthday on Friday by being released from West Feliciana parish detention center. It was a bittersweet birthday present: the prisoner finally escaped a form of captivity that has widely been denounced as torture, and that has deprived him of all meaningful human contact for more than four decades.
“Although I was looking forward to proving my innocence at a new trial, concerns about my health and my age have caused me to resolve this case,” he said.
Woodfox, who many consider a political prisoner, had spent more than 43 years under solitary confinement for Miller’s death, a practice that many criminal justice advocates, human rights groups and the United Nations equate to torture.
Woodbox was the longest-standing solitary confinement prisoner in America, held in isolation in a six-by-nine-foot cell almost continuously for 43 years.
Woodfox has always professed his innocence and marked his 69th birthday on Friday by being released from West Feliciana parish detention center. It was a bittersweet birthday present: the prisoner finally escaped a form of captivity that has widely been denounced as torture, and that has deprived him of all meaningful human contact for more than four decades.