INSTITUTE INDEX: Will justice prevail in Louisiana for Angola 3's Woodfox?
Date on which a federal judge, citing racial discrimination in the grand jury foreperson selection process, reversed the conviction of Albert Woodfox for the 1972 stabbing death of a guard at the Louisiana State Penitentiary known as Angola: 2/26/2013
Of the grand jury forepersons judicially selected in Louisiana's West Feliciana Parish between 1980 and 1993, percent who were black: 18.5
Percent of West Feliciana Parish's population that is black: 50.51
Days after the federal judge's ruling that Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell said his office would appeal in the case that has come to be known as the "Angola 3" for the number of inmates held in prolonged solitary confinement following the guard's death: 1
Date on which Amnesty International urged Caldwell not to appeal, citing longstanding human rights concerns related to the convictions and confinement: 2/27/2013
Number of times Woodfox's conviction has been overturned: 3
Year in which Woodfox and fellow Angola 3 inmates Herman Wallace and Robert Hillary King, who were all originally imprisoned for robbery, founded the Angola chapter of the Black Panther Party and organized against segregation, inhumane working conditions, rape, and sexual slavery: 1971
Year in which Woodfox and Wallace were initially convicted in Miller's death: 1973
Pieces of physical evidence linking Woodfox to the murder: 0
Number of years that Woodfox has been held in solitary confinement: 40
Number of hours a day that he is confined to a cell: 23
Number of times a week he is allowed outside for an hour of solitary recreation in a small outdoor cage: 3
Number of other cases in the U.S. where prisoners have been subjected to such restricted human contact for such a prolonged period: 0
Year in which King, who was never convicted in the guard's death, was freed and began seeking his fellow Angola 3 inmates' release: 2001
Date on which Amnesty launched an online public campaign asking Caldwell not to appeal and to let Woodfox go free: 3/11/2013
(Click on figure to go to source.)
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Sue Sturgis
Sue is the former editorial director of Facing South and the Institute for Southern Studies.