|
by Anita Roddick
If you consider yourself a person of
conscience who believes in justice, this is one
letter you'll want to read carefully. It's a
Letter of Conscience, offered in solidarity
with the Angola Three, three men who have been
languishing in solitary confinement for 30
years for crimes they did not commit.
If, after you've read this brief overview of
their story, you are as outraged as I was when
I first heard it, I urge you to sign your name
to the bottom and send it on to your friends.
We hope to gather several thousand signatures
to be delivered to the lawmakers and human
rights officials who have the power to right
this egregious wrong.
Albert Woodfox, Harman Wallace, and Robert
Wilkerson are three black men who arrived at
the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola in
the early 1970s on unrelated robbery
convictions. At the time, Angola was known as
the most brutal, corrupt, and racially
segregated prison in America. Stabbings,
shootings, and rapes were almost daily
occurrences. Hoping to make a stand for basic
human rights and dignity, the three men founded
a chapter of the civil-rights group the Black
Panthers to protect those inmates being
victimized the most and to expose and fight the
corrupt prison administration.
When a young white guard turned up dead inside
the prison, officials worked quickly to pin the
crime on members of the Panthers in an effort
to smash the group. Woodfox and Wallace were
soon tried for the crime, based on testimony by
known prison snitches who were paid for their
testimony with reduced sentences and, in one
case, with a carton of cigarettes a week. They
were convicted by all-white juries, sentenced
to life without parole, and thrown into
solitary confinement indefinitely.
Wilkerson soon joined them, convicted by
another all-white jury for the stabbing death
of a fellow inmate, again based on testimony by
a fellow inmate who later said he was coerced
into fingering Wilkerson. While on trial, the
judge had Wilkerson's mouth duct-taped shut.
Wilkerson's conviction stood for 29 years,
despite the fact that another man had confessed
to and was convicted of the murder.
Wilkerson's conviction was finally overturned
last year and he was freed. But Woodfox and
Wallace remain behind bars, in solitary
confinement 23 hours a day. The American Civil
Liberties Union has filed a suit against the
prison administration maintaining that 30 years
in solitary constitutes cruel and unusual
punishment.
Mumia Abu-Jamal said of the Angola Three, "It
is past time for people to organize for their
life in freedom. They are political prisoners
of the highest caliber who deserve your
support."
http://www.prisonactivist.org/angola/ .//www.prisonactivist.org/angola/>//www.anitaroddick.com/>
By signing this letter and forwarding it to
other concerned citizens, you are expressing
your commitment to human rights and justice, in
America and elsewhere. No one is free while
others are oppressed.
STATEMENT: Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace
are political prisoners who have suffered for
three decades under inhumane and cruel
conditions for crimes they did not commit. We
demand that they be moved immediately from
their solitary "supermax" cells into the
general prison population. Further, we demand
that evidence that has since emerged that their
convictions were based on false and coerced
testimony be considered in granting them new
trials. The American justice system lies at the
heart of the country's very identity as a free
and democratic republic. Travesties of justice
such as this weaken the system as a whole, and
therefore weaken both the country itself and
the cause of freedom around the world.
SIGNED:
1) Anita Roddick, West Sussex, UK
2) Justine Roddick, California, United States
3) Scott Fleming, Oakland CA, United States
4) Cal Joy, Brisbane, Australia
5) Brooke Shelby Biggs, San Francisco CA,
United States
6) Stephanie Green, San Francisco CA, United
States
7) Bruce Allen, St. Catharines, Ontario,
Canada
8) Marina Drummer, Berkeley, CA, United States
9) Kiilu Nyasha, San Francisco, CA, USA
10) Mary Ratcliff, San Francisco, CA, USA
11) JR Valrey, Oakland, Ca, usa
12) Lisa Gray-Garcia San Francisco, Ca, USA
TO SIGN: Copy the entire message into a new
email (please don't forward it!), add the next
consecutive number along with your name and
location, and send it to as many friends as you
can. (Please be sure to include this endnote!)
If there are 100 names signed when you receive
this, please send a copy of the email back to
me at staff@anitaroddick.com, clear the list of
names, add yourself as #1, and send it on. If
you choose not to sign or forward this email,
please send it back to staff@anitar
|
