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

April 10, 10:13 AMBoston Progressive ExaminerMichael Richardson

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Robert Hillary King                      PMPress photo

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 at a branch of the Boston Public Library and at Community Church. King 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 particpate 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."