Judge: Ex-Black Panther should get 3rd trial

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

BATON ROUGE, La., 12 June 2008 (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.

To read more on the Angola 3, click here!