The Last of the Angola Three Is Staying in Prison for at Least Two More Months

Albert Woodfox, the former Black Panther activist who's been in solitary confinement longer than anyone else in US history, is not getting out of prison. This despite federal Judge James Brady earlier this week ordering his release after 43 years at Louisiana State Penitentiary, a.k.a. Angola.

As we previously reported, Louisiana Attorney General James "Buddy" Caldwell immediately appealed the release order, and on Tuesday, a federal appeals court issued a stay that postponed Woodfox's release until at least 1 PM Friday.

Woodfox is the last member of a group of Louisiana prisoners called the Angola Three. The men were kept in solitary for decades, ostensibly because of their political activism and crimes in prison. One, Robert King, was released in 2001 after a court overturned his conviction for killing another inmate. Another, Herman Wallace—who along with Woodfox was convicted in 1974 of killing a prison guard—was released two years ago, just days before dying of cancer.

Albert Woodfox, meanwhile, remains in a cell the size of a parking space—where he's been stuck pretty much without interruption since the early 70s.

Less than an hour before the Friday deadline, a panel of three appeals court judges decided to extend the stay while the state appeals Brady's ruling. The judges on the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals did ask that those proceedings be expedited, but are not scheduled to hear arguments until late August, according to the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, Woodfox, 68, remains isolated.

"Given that the overturning of Albert Woodfox's conviction on three separate occasions was not enough, Judge Brady's decision to grant him unconditional release should have certainly ended this 43-year-long nightmare," Steven W. Hawkins of Amnesty International said in a statement immediately after the ruling. "Instead, he remains behind bars, fighting to prove his innocence as a result of the Louisiana Attorney General's desperate attempt to thwart justice."

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