[Ppnews] Angola 3 - Judge: Ex-Black Panther should get 3rd trial

[Political Prisoner News]

Judge: Ex-Black Panther should get 3rd trial

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gath4w-3DpIiMlWbenW2RmQXWJwAD917VI3O4

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) ­ A former Black Panther 
who was convicted of killing a prison guard in 
1972 should get a third trial because his 
attorney previously failed to object to certain 
testimony and hire experts for his defense, a federal magistrate said.

Albert Woodfox, 61, one of the prisoners known as 
the "Angola Three," spent most of the past three 
decades in solitary confinement after he was 
convicted in the stabbing death of guard Brent Miller during a prison riot.

Magistrate Judge Christine Nolan wrote that 
Woodfox's attorney's omissions denied him a fair 
second trial in 1998. The attorney should have 
objected to testimony from witnesses who had died 
since the original trial, the magistrate wrote 
Tuesday in a nonbinding recommendation to U.S. 
District Judge James Brady, who will rule later.

The witnesses who died included an inmate who was 
the prosecution's main witness and an expert who 
talked about blood spatters on clothing that 
state officials said had been lost, Noland wrote. 
The attorney also should have asked for money to 
hire experts to talk the blood, DNA and fingerprints, the magistrate wrote.

Noland's decision was good news for 66-year-old 
Herman Wallace, another member of the "Angola 
Three" convicted in the guard's killing, Nicholas 
Trenticosta, an attorney representing both men, 
said Wednesday. Wallace also is seeking a new 
trial based on similar arguments; a state court 
rejected his appeal for a new trial last month.

Woodfox and Wallace were kept in solitary 
confinement from 1972 until March, when they were 
moved to a maximum-security dormitory.

Woodfox has said he did not kill Miller and was 
targeted for prosecution because he had helped 
establish a prison chapter of the Black Panther Party.

State Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, said 
last month that he plans to have the House 
Judiciary Committee hold hearings on the case.

Robert King Wilkerson, the other member of the 
"Angola 3," was freed in 2001 after his 1973 
conviction of murdering a fellow inmate was 
overturned and he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder.




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