A federal judge ruled that a man who has spent 43 years in solitary confinement should go free.
Albert Woodfox is the last of the “Angola 3” prisoners convicted of killing guard Brent Miller at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola in 1972. U.S. District Judge James J. Brady’s ruling said Woodfox should be released and not face another trial, CNN reports.
Woodfox helped organize the Black Panther chapter at his prison and claims that is why he hasn’t been treated fairly by the justice system. Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell is seeking a stay of the judge’s ruling to keep Woodfox in prison.
“With today’s order, the Court would see fit to set free a twice-convicted murderer who is awaiting trial again for the brutal slaying of Corrections Officer Brent Miller,” Aaron Sadler, spokesman for Caldwell’s office, told The Times-Picayune.
Woodfox was in prison for armed robbery when Miller was killed. Woodfox was convicted for murdering the guard in 1973, which was overturned in 1992. He was indicted again in 1993 and convicted again in 1998.
A federal appeals court overturned Woodfox’s second conviction last year and he was awaiting another trial, but Brady ruled that Woodfax should be released and there should be no new trial because he had a bad lawyer and so many key witnesses are now dead.
Of the two other prisoners allegedly involved in the guard’s death, Robert King has been freed, and Herman Wallace was also freed but died days later of liver cancer.
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