‘Angola Three’: US’ Longest-Held Solitary Confinement Inmate Released

Albert Woodfox was released from a Louisiana prison Friday afternoon after spending 43 years in solitary confinement.

This comes after he plead no contest on Friday to manslaughter charges in the death of prison guard Brent Miller in 1972.

His release on Friday came after the state dropped the threat of a third murder charge in exchange for Woodfox pleading no contest to lesser charges.

The 69-year-old was the last of three black inmates whose lengthy stays in solitary confinement at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola drew global condemnation.

In a press release earlier Friday, Woodfox thanked his brother and other supporters who have lobbied over the years for his release.

Miller’s death had sent Woodfox down a decades-long odyssey of murder trials, overturned convictions and seemingly endless solitude in a 6-by-9 foot cell as human rights groups campaigned for his release.

At the time, Woodfox and two other politically-active inmates – Robert Hillary King and Herman Wallace – were implicated in the guard’s death, put on trial and convicted.

Wallace was released in 2013 suffering from liver cancer, and died several days later.

Woodfox also credited the International Coalition to Free the Angola 3 and the Roddick Foundation for his release.

His case sparked an outcry from Amnesty International USA, which charged years of solitary confinement had a “clear psychological effect” on the inmate.

Courtesy of Fenton Communications Albert Woodfox had long insisted he was innocent in the fatal stabbing of guard Brent Miller in 1972.

“I hope the events of today will bring closure to many”, Woodfox stated.

But the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Brady, setting up a third trial.

It was Woodfox’s 69th birthday, and the first time he has been a free man since entering the Louisiana State Penitentiary, nicknamed “Angola”, on a robbery charge in 1971.

“Albert survived the extreme and cruel punishment of 40 plus years in solitary confinement only because of his extraordinary strength and character”.

Their plight has also spawned at least three documentaries, including “Angola 3: Black Panthers and the Last Slave Plantation”, “Herman’s House” and “In the Land of the Free…”, narrated by actor Samuel L. Jackson. The “Black Panther Party” was a black American revolutionary group that gained prominence in the United States during the 1960s.

He is expected to be released Friday from the West Feliciana Parish jail, where he has most recently been held.

A condition of his plea agreement struck with Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office was that he be sentenced to time already served, his attorney William Sothern said.

And as the appeals process dragged on, Mr Woodfox remained in solitary confinement for decades. Miller, a prison guard, was stabbed to death at the age of 23. “He served one of the harshest sentences for years”, The Advocate reports.