http://www.newsreview.com/chico/Content?oid=850018
After 29 years in solitary, Robert Hillary King gets exonerated
By Ginger McGuire
[September 2008]
Robert Hillary King has spent most of his adult life in prison,
including 29 years in solitary confinement at Louisiana's infamous
"slave plantation," Angola State Prison. Now he's free, absolved of
his crime, and traveling the country to talk about his soon-to-be
released autobiography, From the Bottom of the Heap.
Dozens of Chico State students, along with professors, social
activists and others, packed the Chico City Council chambers Tuesday
(Sept. 23) to listen to King speak.
Sentenced originally to 35 years for a crime he did not commit, in
prison King joined the Black Panther Party and attempted to organize
prisoners to improve their abysmal living conditions. In return,
prison authorities allegedly beat him, starved him, and framed him
for a second crime that resulted in a sentence of life without parole.
King spent 29 years in a 6-by-9-foot cell. Eventually he became known
as one of the "Angola 3," convicts whose cases became famous as
examples of "political prisoners" treated unfairly.
The African American revolutionist, who grew up in New Orleans, said
he started fighting against oppression and discrimination at a young
age. But when he began feeling like a slave, he rebelled.
"I began to look at the system for what I thought it wasI felt
empty," King said. "I began to feel I had no moral obligation to a
system of oppression.
"After being found guilty I lost all respect for the system," he
added. "I saw myself being treated as a slave.
"I was in prison, but prison was not in me," he continued. "Am I
bitter? Of course; I am human. … I can take this so-called bitterness
and change ituse it in a positive direction."
King first went to prison when he was about 18 for a robbery. He
served nine years. Then, he said, he was convicted of another
robbery, even though he was innocent. Soon after being imprisoned,
King joined the Black Panther Party because he felt he had "a moral
right to rebel" because he felt like a slave living in unsanitary
conditions and he wanted to put a face on oppression.
He was framed for the murder of an inmate, and went to the "hole," or
segregation, for 29 of the 31 years of his prison term. Finally, in
2001, the state of Louisiana exonerated and released him.
In the book, King writes that his fellow Black Panther Party
organizers Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfoxthe other two in the
Angola 3were framed for the murder of a prison guard. A strong
campaign has been waged to free the two prisoners, who remain at
Angola, and a civil suit is pending based on claims that their
solitary isolation is a violation of their protection against cruel
and unusual punishment.
Also, Amnesty International has added the Angola 3 to its "watch
list" of political prisoners of conscience, according to the Web site
of the Chico Peace and Justice Center, one of the sponsors of King's
visit. The site also states that Woodfox and Wallace are the
longest-held prisoners in solitary isolation (or closed-cell
restriction) in the United States.
"In a democratic society, we need to have a fair and accountable
criminal-justice system," said Sue Hilderbrand, director of the
center. "Here is an example of a travesty of injustice. We need to
work together, to get all political prisoners out."
"It's a sad story," said A.J. Gold, a criminal-justice major who
attended King's talk. "It questions our prison system. … I have mixed
feelings. I think people are wrongfully accused, but at the same time
I think [the prison system] is effective."
During the event, a woman spoke about a small study she recently
conducted where she interviewed 10 young African Americans in Chico
about discrimination. She said it was important to realize that it
"isn't just happening somewhere else," but rather that "this is
happening in our town" and across the world.
"The struggle continues," King said. "Freedom isn't something
intangible … I don't take it for granted."
.
No comments:
Post a Comment