Restorative Justice Is Needed For Albert Woodfox, The Black Panther Party And The Nation (tags)
On Monday, June 8, 2015, US District Court Judge James Brady ruled that the Angola 3's Albert Woodfox be both immediately released and barred from a retrial. Among those who communicated with Albert during that emotional week was Southern University Law Professor Angela A. Allen-Bell. In the days following Judge Brady's ruling, she was a featured guest on several television and radio shows that focused on Albert's case, including National Public Radio. In this interview with Angola 3 News, Prof. Bell discusses her new law journal article and reflects upon the latest developments in Albert's fight for freedom. She argues that recent Angola 3-related media coverage in the US is becoming "more substantive," and that this month "the media got bolder and began digging deeper than just a soundbite."
Terrorism, COINTELPRO, and the Black Panthers -An interview with Angela A. Allen-Bell (tags)
In her new law journal article, “Activism Unshackled & Justice Unchained,” law professor Angela A. Allen-Bell concludes that the US government’s multi-faceted response to the BPP, primarily within the framework of the FBI’s infamous COINTELPRO, was indeed the very definition of terrorism. Bell writes that “the magnitude of the unwarranted harm done to the BPP has not yet been explored in an appropriate fashion. Much like a fugitive, it has eluded justice.” As a result, “the FBI's full-scale assault on the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s remains an open wound for the nation itself. This is more than a national tragedy; this is a human wrong.
Panthers in the Hole: French Angola 3 Book Illustrates US Prison Crisis (tags)
Amnesty International France and La Boîte à Bulles have published a 128-page French language graphic novel entitled Panthers in the Hole. The book's co-authors David Cénou and Bruno Cénou present with visual art what Amnesty France describes as "la tragique histoire des Trois d'Angola" (the tragic story of the Angola 3). We interview Nicolas Krameyer, who is head of the Individuals at Risk / Human Rights Defenders Program for Amnesty International France.
A Moral Outrage: Rev. Dr. Patricia Bates on the torture of Albert Woodfox (tags)
We interview Rev. Dr. Patricia Bates from the National Religious Coalition Against Torture (www.nrcat.org), who attended Albert Woodfox's recent January 7 oral arguments before the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and made a statement at the press conference outside the courtroom on behalf of NRCAT.
Opening the Box: Sarah Shourd on Herman Wallace, CA Hunger Strikers & Solitary Confinement (tags)
Herman Wallace of the Angola 3 has been transferred out of solitary confinement, as Louisiana’s Hunt prison reduced his classification from maximum to medium security. Herman is now staying at the prison hospital in a 10-bunk dorm, with access to a day room, and does not have to wear leg irons anymore. While celebrating the more human conditions, Herman and the International Coalition to Free the Angola 3 emphasize that the transfer from solitary is not enough. They are asking folks to continue supporting Amnesty International’s call for humane release.
Reforming Prison’s Harshest Tactic –The Angola 3 case may help change the... (tags)
The Angola 3 case may help change the arbitrary and sometimes abusive use of solitary confinement.
Freedom for Albert Woodfox of the Angola 3, After 40 Years in Solitary Confinement? (tags)
After four decades of solitary confinement in the nation's most populated maximum-security prison -- and one of its most historically brutal -- a member of the internationally known "Angola 3" has reasonable cause to expect that he will soon be released, his attorneys and supporters say. The request to set free Albert Woodfox, 65, is being heard by the same federal judge who in 2008 ordered that Woodfox be released, a ruling that Louisiana prosecutors successfully appealed and blocked.
The Black Panther Party’s Living Legacy --Touring Oakland and Berkeley w/ Billy X Jennings (tags)
Last week, the "Dismantling Racism" class from St. Catherine University in Minnesota was taken on a Black Panther History Tour in Oakland and Berkeley, California, led by Billy X Jennings from It's AboutTime BPP Alumni & Legacy. Angola 3 News came along and filmed the tour. This is part one.
Do US Prisons Violate European Human Rights Law? --Interview w/ Hamja Ahsan & Aviva Stahl (tags)
An important ruling is expected early in September from the European Court of Human Rights, regarding whether or not US prisons respect human rights enough for the UK to extradite ‘war on terror' suspects to the US. We interview activist/journalist Aviva Stahl from CagePrisoners.com alongside Hamja Ahsan, the brother of Talha Ahsan, one of the appellants that will be seriously affected by the September ruling, imprisoned since 2006.
Solitary Confinement on Trial --An interview with law professor Angela A. Allen-Bell (tags)
On the eve of Tuesday's Senate hearing on solitary confinement, we interview Angela A. Allen-Bell, a law professor at Southern University in Baton Rouge. The newly released issue of the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly features an article by Prof. Bell entitled "Perception Profiling & Prolonged Solitary Confinement Viewed Through the Lens of the Angola 3 Case: When Prison Officials Become Judges, Judges Become Visually Challenged and Justice Become Legally Blind.”
Guantanamo Prison's True Secret: Jason Leopold in Conversation With Andy Worthington (tags)
Activist/Journalist Andy Worthington was recently a guest speaker alongside investigative journalist Jason Leopold at the UC Hastings College of Law, in San Francisco, hosted by the college’s chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. The event, entitled “Ten Years of Guantanamo,” was held amidst protests around the world calling for the prison to be immediately shutdown. Worthington, the author of “The Guantanamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison,” has been documenting the array of human rights abuses at Guantanamo for over six years now.
Dancing With Dynamite --An interview with Ben Dangl (tags)
Video-interviewed by Angola 3 News this week while touring the SF Bay Area with his new book Dancing With Dynamite (AK Press), author Benjamin Dangl argues that “because South American social movements have been so successful in the past decade, I think it is important to learn and understand what’s been successful and to apply those strategies and tactics here, where we are facing very similar challenges.”
Dylcia and Cisco on Panthers and Independista --SF8 Hearing on March 2 (tags)
This new episode of Freedom is a Constant Struggle (filmed by Angola 3 News) features Dylcia Pagan and Cisco Torres. Dylcia is a Puerto Rican freedom fighter, Independista, and former political prisoner. Cisco is the last member of the SF8 facing charges. He has an evidentiary hearing on March 2, 2011, and there is an 8 AM rally prior to the hearing, where supporters are urged to attend.
Lucasville Five Hunger Strike Begins --An interview with author Staughton Lynd (tags)
The Lucasville Five are now back in the news with an announcement last week that four of the five will be participating in a simultaneous “rolling hunger strike,” beginning today, January 3. They are using the hunger strike to protest their convictions (having always maintained their innocence) as well as their living situation, which is more restrictive than for most prisoners on Ohio’s death row.
Bradley Manning and GI Resistance to US War Crimes --An interview with Dahr Jamail (tags)
When someone becomes a soldier, they swear an oath to support and defend the US constitution by following “lawful” orders. Thus, they are legally obliged by their own oath to not follow unlawful orders. What Bradley Manning did by leaking this critical information has been to uphold his oath as a soldier in the most patriotic way. Now, compare that with how he has been raked over the coals by most of the mainstream media.
The Case of the Angola 3 --A review of the new film “In The Land of the Free...” (tags)
Targeted for their militancy, co-captives Wallace, Woodfox and Robert King had organized a prison chapter of the Black Panther Party and they became known as the Angola 3 after they were falsely convicted by kangaroo courts and all-white juries.
New Film About The Angola 3 Showing Oct. 27 (tags)
"In The Land of the Free..." will be showing in Beverly Hills at 5:30 pm, on Wednesday, October 27 at the Laemmle Music Music Hall 3 Theatre, 9036 Wilshire Blvd.
The FBI’s War On Democracy --Claude Marks discusses the new film COINTELPRO 101 (tags)
Claude Marks, Director of The Freedom Archives,says "we undertook to make this new film, knowing that no government agent or agency has ever been held accountable for the assassinations of leaders, the destruction of organizations, the imprisonment and political targeting of so many people - people who still remain prisoners of the wars against movements for liberation and self-determination within the US borders."
COINTELPRO and the Omaha Two --An interview with Michael Richardson (tags)
In 2007, veteran journalist Michael Richardson began writing a series of articles for OpEdNews.com about Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa, who are two Black Panther political prisoners known as the Omaha Two. Richardson argues that they were framed for the 1970 murder of a policeman as part of the FBI’s notorious counterintelligence program, dubbed “COINTELPRO.”
The Jena Generation --An interview with Jordan Flaherty (tags)
If this city is going to recover, the first step is getting out the truth that New Orleans is not okay. Most of the country believes either that New Orleans has been rebuilt, or that, if not, it’s because people here are lazy and/or corrupt and wasted the nation’s generous assistance. But New Orleans is still a city in crisis. The oft-promised aid, whether from FEMA or various federal and private agencies, has not arrived.
A Christian Perspective on Prisons --An interview with Stan Moody (tags)
Only as the public becomes aware of the enormous cost of the revolving door of incarceration will they begin to pay attention to what is going on inside and how we might change the dynamic. Corrections has taken full advantage of this denial by essentially saying, “You cannot possibly understand what we are up against.” They have built incarceration into a growth industry that is sapping our national strength and shredding our decency.
Visiting A Modern Day Slave Plantation --An Interview With Nancy A. Heitzeg (tags)
My interest in Angola is as both a paradigm of the Southern transformation of plantations into prisons and as a prototype for what we now call the prison industrial complex. Many old plantations in the South became prisons after the Civil War. Angela Y. Davis traces the initial rise of the penitentiary system to the abolition of slavery, writing: “in the immediate aftermath of slavery, the southern states hastened to develop a criminal justice system that could legally restrict the possibilities of freedom for the newly released slaves.”
Kevin Cooper: Will California Execute An Innocent Man? (tags)
Author J. Patrick O'Connor was recently interviewed in San Francisco about his research into the case of San Quentin death row prisoner Kevin Cooper, whose appeal at the Ninth Circuit Court was recently denied, with Judge William Fletcher writing a stinging dissent, declaring that the "State of California may be about to execute an innocent man.” This fall, Cooper will be appealing to the US Supreme Court, which is last chance to avoid execution.
aWearness Call to Action--Support the Angola 3 (tags)
host a solidarity birthday party for Albert Woodfox of the Angola 3 on Feb. 19th. Enter our cake contest. www.angola3action.org