08/05/22 08/05/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> earlier today, i spoke with the family of breonna taylor. this morning they were informed the justice department has charge four current and former police department officers with federal crimes related to ms. taylor's death. a make of the justice department has announced federal criminal

charges against four former and current louisville police officers over their roles in the fatal shooting of breonna taylor, shot dead in her home during a no-knock police raided two years ago. we will go to louisville for the latest. did we remember the life and legacy of albert woodfox, former black panther who spent nearly 44 years in solitary confinement, longer than any prisoner in u.s. history. he died of covid at the age of 75 thursday, six years after he was freed on the angola present in louisiana. >> i remember reading something from mr. mandela and he said you can carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. i thought what we were is doing was a noble cause so we were prepared, so the beatings and the gas and the decades of solitary confinement, although

painful and difficult, never got to the point where they were able to break us. amy: we will hear albert woodfox in his own words and speak to his brother, his attorney, and robert king who was imprisoned in angola with woodfox for decades. they were collectively known as the angola three. all that are more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the justice department has announced federal criminal charges against four former and current louisville police officers over their roles in the fatal shooting of breonna taylor. her death, in a hail of police gunfire in 2020, sparked march protests across the united states and around the world under the banner black lives matter. former louisville metro police detective joshua jaynes was taken into fbi custody thursday morning and charged with obstruction and civil rights

violations. also charged thursday were louisville police sargent kyle meany, officer kelly hanna goodlett, and former louisville police detective brett hankison. this is the head of the justice department's civil rights division assistant attorney general kristen clarke. >> breonna taylor should have awakened in her home as usual on the morning of march 13, 2020. tragically, she did not. she was just 26 years old. as attorney general garland just stated, today's indictments allege louisville police detective joshua jaynes and sergeant kyle meany drafted and approved what they knew was a false affidavit to support search warrant for ms. taylor's home. that false affidavit set in motion events that led to ms. taylor's death. amy: after headlines, we will get the latest on the charges

against the four officers involved in breonna taylor's killing. the two white officers who actually shot her were not charged. ukrainian officials are urging to evacuatehe donetsk region. intensifying their assault on ukraine's east for president volodymyr zelenskyy said his troops are facing hell on the battlefield. a new report from amnesty international finds ukraine forces are endangering the lives of civilians by establishing bases and operating weapon systems and populated residential areas, including in schools and hospitals. amnesty said such tactics violate international humanitarian law. the report drew an angry response from president zelenskyy. >> aggression against our state is unprovoked and frankly, terroristic.

if someone prepares a report for which the victim and the aggressor are allegedly the same, some data about the victim is analyzed, something the aggressor was doing at the time, this cannot be tolerated. amy: amnesty international said "being in a defensive position does not exempt ukrainian military from respecting international humanitarian law." a court in russia has found wnba basketball star brittney griner guilty of drug smuggling and sentenced her to nine years in a penal colony. during closing arguments thursday, griner took responsibility for bringing vape cartridges containing a small amount of cannabis oil with her through the moscow airport, where she was arrested by customs authorities in february. she said the cannabis was prescribed for medical reasons. >> i understand everything that is being set against m the charges that are against me. but i had no intent to breaking

any russian law. i made an honest mistake and i hope that in your ruling that it does not end my life here. amy: president biden called griner's nine-year prison sentence unacceptable and promised to work to bring her home. earlier today, russian foreign minister sergei lavrov said the kremlin remains ready to discuss a prisoner swap involving griner and former u.s. marine paul whelan, who's been jailed in russia on espionage charges since 2018. china says it will sanction u.s. house speaker nancy pelosi and her immediate family over her visit this week to taiwan's capital taipei. on wednesday, pelosi became the most senior official to visit taiwan in a quarter century. her trip prompted china to launch large-scale military exercises in waters around taiwan that effectively blockaded the island. pelosi spoke to reporters earlier today as she wrapped up her tour of asia in tokyo,

japan, and after china's foreign ministry called her actions "vicious" and "provocative." >> they will not isolate taiwan by preventing us to travel there. we have had high-level visits in a bipartisan way, continuing visits and we will not allow them to isolate taiwan. amy: on thursday, pelosi led a delegation of u.s. lawmakers who traveled to south korea and toured the demilitarized zone that divides the korean peninsula. her trip came as the united nations said in a new report north korea has made preparations for a new nuclear weapons test this year, which would be the first such test since it exploded a hydrogen bomb in 2017. back in the united states, democratic senator kyrsten sinema said thursday she will support a budget reconciliation bill containing some of the democrats' legislative priorities on healthcare and the climate crisis.

as a condition of her support, sinema demanded democratic leaders agree to abandon a provision that would close the so-called "carried interest loophole," a tax break exploited by hedge fund and private equity managers to pay lower tax rates than middle-income workers. senate majority leader chuck schumer said a revised version of the bill would be released on saturday. and arizona, former tv news anchor trump supporter cary lake has won the republican governor trail primary. she narrowly defeated lawyer and businesswoman karen taylor robinson who had been -- had the support of vice president mike pence and other prominent republicans. carrie lake put false claims about a stolen 2020 election at the center of her campaign and said she would not add certified president biden's victory. her victory follows other arizona deniers who when republican nominations including

candidates for congress, senate, secretary of state. the biden administration has declared monkeypox a public health emergency. thursday's declaration by health and human services secretary xavier becerra comes two weeks after the world health organization declared the disease a global emergency. officially, the united states has recorded nearly 3000 cases of monkeypox, though the true toll is likely far higher due to severe shortages of testing. new york public health officials have discovered poliovirus in samples of sewage taken from outside of new york city, suggesting the virus is spreading in the community. and that hundreds of people may have already been infected. officials have tied the polio lineage discovered in rockland county to recent samples taken in israel and the united kingdom. polio mainly effects children and can sometimes cause paralysis or death. the united states declared the disease eradicated in 1979, but officials warn that unvaccinated people remain vulnerable.

only 60% of rockland county's two-year-old children have been vaccinated against polio. in florida, republican governor ron desantis is facing backlash after he suspended the state's attorney general, andrew warren, over warren's promise not to prosecute people who seek or provide abortions in florida. warren, who is a democrat, condemned desantis' move as "an illegal overreach" and said his suspension "spits in the face of the voters." desantis spoke at a press conference yesterday. >> i was shocked at the blatant violation of one of the most fun mental principles of our democracy, that the people, the voters get to elect elected officials. i've been elected twice and served a state attorney and done it well. crime is down. we have fought so hard for public safety.

if the governor thinks he could do a better job, then he should run for state attorney, not president. and because that is hillsborough county state attorney andrew warren. governor desantis signed a bill into law in april that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. the measure is facing several legal challenges. the fbi has arrested former puerto rico governor wanda vázquez over her alleged involvement in a bribery scheme to finance her 2020 gubernatorial campaign. vázquez is accused of accepting bribes in 2019 and 2020 while she was governor from several people, including julio martin herrera velutini, a banker who was under investigation by the agency that oversees puerto rico's financial institutions. in exchange for the donations, vázquez reportedly demanded the resignation of the agency's director and later appointed a new one, a former consultant of herrera's bank. váuez, herra, and former

fbi agt also fe wire fud anconspira charg and up 20 yea in pris if convted onll cnts. in austin, texas, a jury has ordered far-right conspiracy theorist and infowars host alex jones to pay $4.1 million in compensatory damages to the parents of jesse lewis, a six-year-old boy killed in the 2012 sandy hook elementary school massacre in newtown, connecticut. for years, alex jones spread conspiracy theories that the newtown shooting was a government hoax and the victim'' families were paid actors, resulting in online harassment and death threats for sandy hook families. the jury is expected to reconvene today to decide how much jones should pay the parents in punitive damages. and albert woodfox, who was held in solitary confinement longer than any prisoner in u.s. history, has died at the age of

75 from covid. the former black panther and political prisoner won his freedom six years ago after surviving nearly 44 years in solitary. woodfox and two fellow former black panthers became known as the angola 3 after they were wrongfully convicted of murder in retaliation for their political and racial justice activism inside louisiana's notorious angola prison. we'll have more on albert woodfox's life and legacy later in the broadcast. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goman. the department of justice has announced federal criminal charges against four former and current louisville police officers over their roles in the fatal shooting of breonna taylor. her death in a hail of police gunfire in 2020 sparked protests around the world under the banner black lives matter. former louisville metro police detective joshua jaynes was taken into fbi custody thursday

morning and charged with obstruction and civil rights violations for knowingly using false, misleading, and incomplete information to get the no-knock search warrant for breonna taylor's home that led to her death. also charged thursday were louisville police sargent kyle meany, officer kelly hanna goodlett, and former louisville police detective brett hankison. attorney general merrick garland announced the indictments thursday. >> earlier today, i spoke with the family of breonna taylor. this morning they were informed the justice department has charged four current and former louisville metro police department officers with federal crimes related to ms. taylor's death. those alleged crimes include civil rights offenses, unlawful conspiracies, unconstitutional use of force, and obstruction offenses. a fifth search warrant was for breonna taylor's home which was approximately 10 miles away from the west end.

the federal charges announced today allege that members of the place-based investigations unit falsify the affidavit used to obtain the search warrant of ms. taylor's home. that this act violated federal civil rights laws and that those violations resulted in ms. taylor's death. his tailor was at home with another person who was in lawful session of a handgun. when officers broke down the door to ms. taylor's apartment, that person, believing intruders were breaking in, immediately fired one shot from hitting the first officer at the door. two officers, neatly fired a total of 22 shots into the apartment. one of those shots hit ms. taylor in the chest and killed her. amy: that was attorney general merrick garland, the head of the justice department's civil rights division, assistant attorney general kristen clarke also spoke thursday. >> the indictment alleges by

preparing a false affidavit to secure a search warrant for breonna taylor's home, defendants jaynes and m eany. we allege that ms. taylor's death resulted from that violation. in a separate indictment, the grand jury charges former lmpd detective brett hankison with using unconstitutionally excessive force during the raid on ms. taylor's home. without a lawful objective justifying the use of deadly force, defendant hankison traveled away from ms. taylor's doorway to the side of the building and fired 10 shots into breonna taylor's apartment through a bedroom window and sliding glass door that were both covered with blinds and curtains. amy: that was assistant attorney

general kristen clarke. we go now to louisville where we are joined by sadiqa reynolds, president and ceo of louisville urban league. welcome back to democracy now! can you respond to these federal charges that were brought against these four officers? the two white officers who actually shobreonna taylor were not charged. >> absoluty. thank you for having me. it is a pleasure to be here. we understand and we have always understood and a level all of the officers might not be charged. but i have to tell you this is a step in the right direction. there really has been a sense of relief in lisville among the family members, among protesters, among those of us who have really tried to encourage people to keep their hope, to really have some faith in our system. this certainly, this idea that any of these officers are charged with killing breonna taylor, it has really been a big

deal. it is been celebrated in louisville. we know it is not over but we are extremely thankful for the department of justice. i have to tell you that. amy: i want to go to tamika palmer, breonna taylor's mother speaking at a news conference yesterday louisville. she criticized the kentucky could attorney general. >> you don't deserve to be where you are and you need to go. if we don't continue to eat him, one of y'all is going to be next. he was dead wrong. it did not start with him but he had the right to do the right thing and he chose not to. amy: federal civil rights charges have been brought against these four officers. but the state charges were never brought except against brett

hankinson for wantonly shooting into the blind covered windows, the bullets going into the next door neighbors who were white. he was ultimately acquitted of that and now charged again, but what about daniel cameron? his significance? he is running for governor next year. >> to be governor, even to run for gornor, he clearly did a disservice. what we want an investigation into is what it daniel cameron no? where did you get the information? what did he share with the grand jury? how can it be the federal government and state government are so far apart on this case? we are concerned he is either incompetent or in collusion. we are not sur theeople do deserve -- all of these people, all of these officers of the court are sworn to uphold and seek justice. and in this case in kentucky,

everybody who had an opportunity to do the right thing, including our attorney general, failed. we are extremely thankful for the fbi keeping their eye on the ball of the department of justice. we have been talking a lot about this incestuous relationship between police and prosecutors across the country, see the failure to prosecute police, the failure to hold them accountable. so we have not really seen the changes that we needed. sure, we've all celebrated what happened with the george floyd case, ahmaud arbery case coming out breonna taylor's case, but we have to look at those cases where there are no charges. there is a significant problem between our prosutors and our police department. but very specifically, in kentucky, we want an investigation into theffice of the attorney general to understand what they knew, when they knew, and what was esented. it is especially important because, remember, in the grand jury case, yet grand juror's wh

came forward who said this is -- we were not told certain this. this is not what we nted. and so we have to figure out and get to the bottom of what exactly happened in that matter. i think it is very, very important. amy: i want to go back to the issue of cameron because at a 20 news conference announcing the grand jury's findings, cameron said jurors agreed homicide charges were not warranted against the officers because they were fired upon. that prompted three of the jurors to come forward and dispute karen's account, arguing karen's staff limited their scope and did not give them an opportunity to consider homicide charges against the police in breonna taylor's death. >> and that is the point. we need to understand what the scopof his investigaon was, what was presented to that grand

jury, what did you know and what did he allow the grand jury to know. was there any look at all into the warranty? if not, why? because at that point he convened a grand jury, this city , proteers -- every perso come everybody in the city was saying there are problems with the warrants. there are problems with this case. we were identifying things. some of these things were so blatant and obvious that laymen were identifying them so wneed to understand more about what our attorney general did or did not do. it does feel like there may have been some predisposition as to what that case and how the case was going to turn out. and i think it is important for those grand juror's to be heard. i mean, the jury system is an important system in this country. it is something we ly on for our decracy, so we ought to hear from our jurors when they object to the process they have been included in. amy: sadiqa reynolds, thank you

for being here, president and ceo of louisville urban league. coming up, we remember the life and legacy of albert woodfox, spent nearly 44 years in solitary confinement, longer than any prisoner in u.s. history. he died of covid on thursday. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "light on the horizon" by adrian youounge. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. albert woodfox, who was held in solitary confinement longer than any prisoner in u.s. history, has died at the age of 75 due to complications of covid-19. the former black panther and political prisoner won his freedom six years ago after surviving nearly 44 years in solitary. he helped establish the first chapter of the black panther party at the louisiana state penitentiary in angola to address horrific conditions at the former cotton plantation. in 1972, he and a fellow imprisoned panther herman wallace were falsely accused of

stabbing a prison guard brent miller to death. woodfox and wallace always maintained their innocence and said they were targeted for their organizing with the black panthers. miller's own widow would later urge the state of louisiana to free albert woodfox after she became convinced he was innocent. woodfox, wallace, and a third black panther robert king became collectively known as the angola 3. for decades, amnesty international and other groups campaigned for their release. robert king was freed in 2001. herman wallace was freed in 2013 only after a federal judge threatened to jail the warden of angola prison if he refused to release him. hermann wallace died one day after his release of liver cancer. but the state of louisiana continued to refuse to release albert woodfox. he was eventually freed on what

was his 69th birthday, february 19, 2016. three days after his release, democracy now!'s renee feltz and i interviewed albert woodfox in his first live tv interview. albertoodfox, can you talk about your plans today -- you have walked out of the prison. you have not been free and 45 years. what are you most struck by? what are your greatest challenges now or your moments of joy since friday? >> for me, as strange as it may sound, when i was in prison, i had established who i was and ways to fight for what i believed in. being released into society, i

am having to learn different techniques, you know, of how to -- i'm just trying to learn how to be free. i've been locked up so long in a prison within a prison. so for me, it's just about learning how to live as a free person and just take my time. right now the world is just speeding so fast for me, and i have to find a way to just slow it down and, you know, just enjoy my family. that's been a great source of energy. being able to sit down with king and laugh and touch him, and he touch me, and hug each other and stuff is, you know, grateful. he has a man that ever since he walked out of prison, he has spent the last 15 or more years of his life fighting for -- to get me and herman out.

and, you know, there are very few human beings who have shown the character and the strength and the determination as my friend and comrade robert king. the black panther party may not exist, but we still exist. we will continue to struggle to free some of our comrades and to, you know, stand shoulder to shoulder and try to take on all of the injustices that we can that goes on in america every day. renée: albert, can you explain the significance of going to visit your mother's gravesite and why that was the first place that you wanted to go?

>> when my mom passed away, i had made a request to go to her funeral and say my final goodbye. warden burl cain denied that requt. and the same thing happened with my sister when she passed away. my family and friends had made arrangements to allow me to go and say goodbye. again, warden burl cain denied that. so for some years now, there has always been this emptiness when it came to my mom and my sister, because i never had a chance to say a final goodbye. and so that is why it was important that one of my first acts of being free was to relieve that burden off of my soul. amy: that was albert woodfox speaking on democracy now! on in

-- on favorite 22, 2016, three days after his release after over 40 years in solitary confinement. following his release, albert would go on to years speaking against, solitary confinement while campaigning for the release of other local prisoners. he also wrote a remarkable memoir with leslie george titled "solitary: unbroken by four decades in solitary confinement. my story of transformation and hope." the memoir won an american book award anwas a finalist for both the pulitzer prize and the national book award. in 2019, juan gonzalez and i interviewed albert woodfox in our new york studio after the publication of the book. and how do you feel today? how have you adjusted after 43 years in prison?

>> well, hopeful. you know, rob and i still travel around, across america and outside of america, to talk about solitary confinement, which we believe is the most horrible and brutal nonphysical attack upon a human being by another human being. throughout my four decades-plus of solitary confinement, i've watched men go insane, i've watched men physically hurt themselves, you know, trying to deal with the pressure of being confined to a 9-by-6 cell 23 hours out of every 24-hour period. and being free now, i still suffer, you know, claustrophobic attacks. i'm able to address them better now because my physical movement is beyond nine feet now.

and so, you know, i can walk in my house. i can go in the backyard of my house. i can go on the sidewalk or there's a park, which i often visit a block and a half away from my house. so the only remedy for me when i had claustrophobic attacks was the space. so this has made it easier to deal with those attacks. amy: you write, gassing prisoners was the number one response by security to deal with any prisoner at angola who demanded to be treated with dignity. in the 1970's, we were gassed so often every prisoner in ccr almost became immune to the tear gas. you were being gassed in solitary confinement? >> yeah. well, you know, the sergeants were provided with these little -- it's like a little deodorant can. and if you would try to get a certain, like, more toilet

paper or you complained about the toilet in your cell not working, you know, and if the officers didn't like the way you were talking or if you were trying to defend yourself from being handled in a disrespectful manner and stuff, they would squirt the gas in your face, you know. and usually that would be followed by -- they would come into your cell and beat you and handcuff you, then bring you and put you in what's called the dungeon. juan: in the book, you describe, very graphically, the situation at angola when you first got there before you were in solitary and the rampant rapes that were occurring in the prison. and once you became politically conscious and you were returned there, you talk about how you insisted that on your -- in your section that there was going to be no more rapes. talk about that and the impact that your political organizing had on the way you dealt with your fellow prisoners.

>> well, the incident that started the prison chapter of the party to form anti-rape squads was i was in my dormitory -- i was housed in hickory 4 at that time -- and this young kid was assigned a bed across from me. and the saddest thing i've ever witnessed in my life is to look at another human being and see that his spirit has been shattered. and this kid, you know, he was just sitting there, and i could see tears rolling out of his eyes. and, you know, i always have believed that in life an individual incident raises your level of consciousness. and so once your level of consciousness is raised, you become aware of whatever conditions, individuals. and so how you respond to that, you know, is pretty much determined on that level of conscious. and i think at that moment that i said, "i can no longer accept

this. i can no longer tolerate this." so the next day, i had a talk with herman wallace. and we used to go out on the football field. that's how we used to have our meetings, like we were practicing football, throwing the football around and having political discussions and stuff. and so we discussed with the other members about the rape and slave trade that was going on in angola. and so we decided to start providing protection for these kids coming in to let them know that they had other options other than being made victims. amy: how did you maintain your sanity. 44 years in solitary confinement. >> i had a political conscious, i had values and principles instilled by my mom that i grew

into. i did not realize how much my mom had set a foundation in me, even though i was resisting it. and, you know, over the decades, we had programs geared toward making the men better. we had schools. we used to hold schools and political classes. but, you know, as many battles as we won, as many men as we saved, as many men as we helped keep their sanity, we lost twice as many men, you know. and there were times when i had to fight really hard for my own sanity. and i thank the fact that what i was doing. you know, throughout all this, i developed an unbelievable love

for humanity and dedicated myself to doing whatever i can to better humanity. and so i remember reading something from mr. mandela, and he said, "if a cause is noble, you can carry the weight of the world on your shoulders." and i thought what we were doing was a noble cause. so we were prepared. and so the beatings and the gassings and the decades of solitary confinement, you know, was really -- although painful and difficult, it never got to the point where they were able to break us. amy: it is amazing to me that rather than just leaving it all behind, already consumed 70 decades of your life, you are spending your life free talking about what's happening inside. i think, to say the least, it's impossible for anyone who hasn't gone through this to understan what it means to live in a

6-by-9-foot cell for more than four decades. how did you maintain your sanity? describe for us being in that cell, what it felt like. >> you know, actually, the measurements to the cell are 6-by-9, six feet wide, nine feet long. but there is actually less space available because you have two bunks attached to the wall that takes up half the cell and you have a toilet bowl/face bowl combination on the back wall, and you have an iron table with a bench on the thing. so you have a very narrow pathway in which you can move back, forward in the cell. you know, when you're first put in solitary confinement, you go

through this period where you want to scream, you know, because nothing you can do to fight this. in hindsight, i would say it was probably the early stages of claustrophobia, you know, but it depend on the individual. as time goes on, you learn to control your emotions, your feeling of being smothered and being confined. and so but then, you know, when we're first put in solitary confinement, you could only have like two or three pair of underwear and a t-shirt. and, you know, you couldn't have books or radios and those things. those things were gained later as a result of our resistance and organizing and hunger

strikes and stuff like that. we won the right to, you know, change. amy: albert, you wrote "my proudest achievement in all my years in solitary was teaching a man to read." how did you do that? and who was this man? >> well, his name's charles and we became good friends. and since, you know, my mom couldn't read or write anything but her name, you know, there's certain things people that can't read or write, certain techniques they use and stuff. and so i picked this up on him. and, you know, the ccr, the cellblock, is 15 men to a cell. and the uniqueness about, i guess, in louisiana, is the front of the cell is made out of bars. it's not a completely concrete enclosed cell. so i just asked him one day. i said, "man, you know, don't get mad, but can you read and

write?" and he said, you know, "no, i can't." and i just told him. i said, "well, i can help you learn how to read and write, but you've got to really want it. you've got to want this badder than anything." and so i used the dictionary starting off. in dictionaries, at the bottom of each page, there's a sound key on how you pronounce words, as to how they're spelled. and i taught him about, you you know, vowels and adjectives, and, you know, just basically, i teached him to shape words. and he really wanted it, you know, because i told him -- i said, you know, "any time, i don't care what, night or day, you hit a wall, you call me." and he'd call me two or three -- 2:00 or 3:00 and in the morning, you know, and "i can't pronounce this word." and so i would ask him to spell

it, and then i'd remind him of, you know, the voice key at the bottom of the page and how you pronounce alphabets, and help him, you know, think. amy: he was in solitary, too. >> yeah, he was about three or four cells down from me. amy: how do you communicate? how did you communicate with other people on solitary? >> well, you talk, holler up and down the tier. you know, this is one of the ways i developed the habit of waking up in the very early a.m. because the tier stops showering. there's no noise. the doors are not opening and closing. and, you know, so you are able to really concentrate on what you're doing. so even now, i wake up 3:00, 3:30 and in the morning and this is when i do most of my reading. i still read, try to read at least two hours a day. so there are some things, habits that i developed in prison that

i still try to hold onto. amy: your final thoughts as you go out into the world, travel the world, taking advantage of every moment in the free world? >> well, you know, my hope has always been for a better humanity and to try to be a part of that, to try to say something or do something that will make, if it's no more than one human being, stop and think and, you know, start a dialogue that can leave into -- that can change into a movement. you know, i've always said that one individual can cause chaos. mass movements can cause change. so, you know, i still firmly believe in that. and so that's -- you know, robert and i and herman, you know, when we were in prison, the one thing we always noticed is that we didn't have a voice. and because of the men and women

and children that were hidden behind the walls of prison and in solitary, nobody knew what we looked like. so we had made a vow that we would be the voice of those men and women and children, and we would be the face. you know, i think what people in america and around the world have to realize that prisoners don't come from another planet. they come from your family. they come from homes. and they might make mistakes. usually, the economic system brings depression. and, you know, i mean, i know that there is a very small percentage of human beings who do some horrible things, you know, but the overwhelming majority -- you know, you come from a family. you don't come from an alien planet. and they need to, you know, remember that. and they need to love them and support them, you know, because prisons or any state

institution without oversight and without consequences, unchecked power corrupts. and that's the situation you have in prisons in this country. amy: former black panther albert woodfox speaking on democracy now! in 2019 shortly after his award-winning book "solitary: unbroken by four decades in solitary confinement. my story of transformation and hope." he died thursday of covid at the age of 75. we will speak to his loved ones after the break. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "neither one of us" by gladys knight and the pips. a favorite of albert woodfox. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as we continue to remember the life and legacy of albert

woodfox, former black panther, who spent nearly 44 years in solitary confinement -- longer than any prisoner in u.s. history. he died of covid-19 at the age of 75 on thursday, six years after he was freed from the angola prison in louisiana. we are joined now by three guest. robert king was prison with albert woodfox for decades and angola. the two of them in the late herman wallace were known as the angola 3. carine williams was one of albert woodfox's longtime attorneys. and in new orleans, we're joined by albert woodfox's brother michael mable. michael, let's begin with you. deepest, deepest condolences. you were with your brother when he died yesterday in the hospital in new orleans. you are in the studio -- we

interviewed you in new orleans a few days after albert was released from prison in 2016. you were again at your brother side as you were receiving him when he was freed. can you share your thoughts about albert, about his life and his legacy? >> well, his legacy was based upon change. no matter what they needed to do to bring about change, you know, one of the things we left as myself running for 40 years, he would teach me and i would let him know things that was going out. i told him way back when i was a juvenile that at that point in time when i was able to become a young man that i would visit with him and be with him until

-- till death do us part. i made a soul vow and i continue to honor that vow. his body is gone but i want his words to be spoken to the world and continue. he is speaking through me now to let us know that we can't stop. there's a lot of change that needs to be done to stop whatever we can do and that is my plight to continue to do what he would want done. it was kind of hard but it only strengthened me. i just want to keep his legacy going. change is going to come. anything i can do to make that change, i want to be a part of it. amy: i want to turn to a clip of you sitting next to albert three days after his 69th birthday.

that moment when you came on democracy now! and he was free. this is what you said then. >> the only thing i felt and the only thing i can answer is that i know he is a free man when i'm able to walk across the sill of the door with him. that reality set in when we were able to do that. amy: we are showing the picture of the two of you together, michael. what was it like when he came out of prison? you were there to greet him. >> when he came out of prison, i noticed one of the things that he was free. he was free. one of the things that he had done before he died and we talked about this many years ago, he wanted his mind to be free. that is one of the things he has in his book. he was a free man and he is free now.

i speak for him through myself to the world. i just want him to know -- that is one of the things we got and one of the things we made vows to each other as brothers, we would never givep hope. i think that may help him and i'm glad as his brother played a big part of allowing him to feel that hope and that freedom was there. amy: that day we interviewed you and albert, we also interviewed robert king in that same studio come the three of you. robert king, when he got out of prison about 15 years earlier, just traveled the country talking about who remained in prison at the time it was herman wallace and albert woodfox. herman got out when a judge threatened the warden if he did not release him that day he would imprison the warden.

hermann got out only to die in the next days of liver cancer. robert king, you never stopped. this is what you said as you sat also next to albert woodfox when he was free. >> there's no place up to go and angola was the bottom. the even call at the bottom. and rightly so. we were trying to get out the bottom and there is only one way and that is to come up and do some things to offset the situation, the said situation it was going on in prison. it was a comfort also to our own mind. we were politicized. we understood why we were being targeted and punished and this gave meaning to why we should struggle more so because it was unjust reasons and unjust position we were in.

amy: that is robert king in 2016. robert, you're joining us on the phone. our condolences, our deepest condolences to u.s. well, joining us not far from where albert succumbed yesterday to covid. your thoughts? >> amy? are you referring to me? amy? amy: hi, robert. if you can share your thoughts today on albert, his life and death. >> can you hear me? amy: we hear you perfectly. >> well i was listing to bert -- listening to the program. wow. kind of hard -- it seemed as if

albert was in the room with me. look, my sentiments now, albert was my brother. he was my friend. i am going to miss him. we saw things in and out of prison. we decided [indiscernible] albert, just in short, he decided to do just that. he took the government knowing it would create a ripple and knowing they would eventually create tsunami effects. he understood his reasoning for

existing. he lived out that. kind of hard for me to believe. but then again, you know, this will carry him on into eternity. he won't be forgotten. amy: he will certainly not be forgotten. i want to go back to 1972 when albert and fellow imprison like panther herman wallace were falsely accused of stabbing the prison guard brent miller to death. woodfox and wallace always maintained their innocence. they said they were targeted for being black panthers. in fact, miller's own widow teenie would urge for their release after she became convinced they were innocent. this is her and a 2010 documentary "in the land of the free." >> i have been living this for

36 years. there is not aear that goes by that i don't have to relive this. it just keeps going and going. and these men, i mean, if they did not do this -- and i believe they didn't -- they have been living a nightmare for 36 years was to amy: that is teenie rogers. carine williams was one of albert woodfox longtime attorneys but that does not really describe her relationship. his beloved attorney carine williams. can you talk about the significance of why he was held, like herman wallace, and like robert king, for so many years? again, to be dubious distinction of the longest held prisoner in solitary confinement in this country for over 43 years? >> good morning, amy.

i can talk about that. as you mentioned, he was convicted wrongfully in 1972 along with herman wallace for the murder of the corrections officer, officer miller. at the time, just by happenstance come the supreme court had declared that penalty unconstitutional in america. and so our position has been, based on the evidence as we litigated the case and herman's case and albert's case, that prison oicials really put them in theells a told them that ey were ing to throw away the key since they could not execute them. so it was intended to be an extra punitive sentence that was not given to them by a judge or through any lawful process, but by these prison offials at angola prison.

and for the next -- in albert's case, 44 years, nearly 44 years -- they were not only fighting to clear their name and overturn the conviction, but also fighting against these unconstitutional conditions they were in 23 hours a day in isolation before basically the duration of theilife sentences the prison officials were seeking. amy: if you couldn't say how you finally got him out? >> is ally was not me alone. there was a legion of lawyers, paralegals, experts, and then people all across the world in communities near and far who supported these efforts rolling boulders at mountains to get mr. woodfox out in 2016. i will say, amy, i'm so glad you

played the clip of albert talking about if a cause is noble, a man can carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. with this passing daschle in america we have to leave it there but i thank you so much, carine williams and michael ñcñcñcñc [ video casste rtling ]

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