[Ppnews] 'Angola 3' Robert Hillary King on solitary confinement

[Political Prisoner News]

'Angola 3' ex-inmate Robert Hillary King tells Boston of 
quarter-century solitary confinement

April 10, 10:13 AM
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-1969-Boston-Progressive-Examiner~y2009m4d10-Angola-3-exinmate-Robert-Hillary-King-tells-Boston-of-quartercentury-solitary-confinement

Robert Hillary King, formerly Robert King Wilkerson, spent over a 
quarter-century in solitary confinement in Louisiana's notorious 
Angola Prison. King, who got introduced to imprisonment as a juvenile 
offender, was already serving time when he joined an unauthorized 
prison chapter of the Black Panther Party in the early 1970's. King 
unknowingly graduated from street criminal to political prisoner 
following his decision to advocate the Panther philosophy to other inmates.

Angola Prison, the largest maximum-security prison in the United 
States, is located on a former slave plantation and its work crews 
labor in the hot sun much like chattel slaves once did

Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace are the other two members of the 
'Angola 3' and remain imprisoned where they are America's longest 
held inmates in solitary confinement. Woodfox and Wallace are held 
for the murder of a guard following a controversial trial while King 
was charged in the murder of another inmate.

King recently visited Boston on a book tour speaking a branch of the 
Boston Public Library and at Community Church. Ling explained he 
could talk about the pain of long years in solitary confinement or 
about the physical abuse in one of the country's most dangerous 
prisons but instead wanted to focus on all political prisoners. 
King's book, From The Bottom of The Heap, is his autobiographical 
account of a life behind bars.

King updated the audiences on Woodfox and Wallace who both have 
appeals pending in the courts. Woodfox has been ordered freed or 
retried by U.S. District Court Judge James Brady. Brady's order is 
stayed pending appeal by the state which wants to keep Woodfox 
imprisoned. Wallace has a new trial request pending before the 
Louisiana Supreme Court.

King spoke several times about Leonard Peltier as he discussed 
Operation COINTELPRO, the secret and illegal war of the Federal 
Bureau of Investigation that targeted the Black Panther Party and 
other groups. Peltier, an activist in the American Indian Movement, 
is serving a life sentence in federal prison for the murder of two 
FBI agents killed on a South Dakota reservation in the 1970's. 
Peltier has denied his involvement in the shooting deaths. There were 
no eyewitnesses to the point-blank killings following a shootout. The 
ballistics evidence has been discredited in the case but Peltier's 
high-profile leadership role has kept the jailhouse door tightly shut.

King also spoke about the 'Omaha Two', Ed Poindexter and Mondo we 
Langa (formerly David Rice) and said their case reminded him of so 
many others including his own because of withheld evidence. The 
'Omaha Two' are imprisoned for the 1970 murder of an Omaha policeman, 
following a controversial trail marred by evidence ordered withheld 
by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. Poindexter has a new trial request 
pending before the Nebraska Supreme Court over withheld evidence and 
conflicting police testimony.

The most poignant moment came when King told the hushed audience that 
to obtain his freedom he had to plead guilty to a conspiracy he did 
not participate in.

"With tears in my eyes, when the judge said to raise my right hand 
and swear to my guilt in the conspiracy, I raised my left hand instead."

" The prosecutor noticed but didn't say anything. I walked out of 
jail that day. Both Albert and Herman told me to do it so I could 
help them outside. That was eight years ago and I have been speaking 
out ever since."

"No matter where you are or who you are you can do something to help. 
A phone call, a letter, something. Every rock in the pond makes a 
ripple. So even if you only have pebbles, keep throwing those pebbles 
in the pond."




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