[Marxism] [Black] La. Prison Journalist Freed After 44 Years

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=519&e=1&u=/
ap/20050116/ap_on_re_us/prison_journalist


La. Prison Journalist Freed After 44 Years

By ADAM NOSSITER, Associated Press Writer
LAKE CHARLES, La. - In the nation's bloodiest prison, Wilbert Rideau became
a thinking man, an award-winning journalist who has been called "the most
rehabilitated inmate in America." Now, after more than 40 years behind bars, he 
is a
free man.
Rideau, convicted three times by all-white juries, walked free Saturday when a
racially mixed jury found him guilty of a lesser charge of manslaughter.
"It offers hope to the black community. It's a new day," said the Rev. J.L. 
Franklin of
Lake Charles, who has led a minister's group that has pushed for years for 
Rideau's
release.
Rideau, 62, never denied that he killed Julia Ferguson on Feb. 16, 1961, and 
shot
two others after a botched robbery. Testifying for the first time in this 
trial, he said it
was an act of panic.
The jury of seven whites and five blacks deliberated for nearly six hours before
reaching its decision.
Since he has spent nearly 44 years in prison ? more than double the 21-year
maximum for manslaughter when the crime occurred ? he was immediately
released. He left with his lawyers and made only passing comments to reporters.
"I'm still trying to assess it," Rideau said. "It's unreal. It's all so new."
After a celebration with his attorneys, he spent the night with his mothers and
sisters, Franklin said.
"Wilbert was just so elated. We were all just extremely excited. And amazed 
that he
is free. We were all very excited and Wilbert's talking about his projects."
Rideau, who is black, was a janitor and eighth-grade dropout when he entered the
notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. Behind bars, he became a self-
educated writer and helped expose the violence behind prison walls, elevating 
the
prison magazine, The Angolite, to national acclaim.
He gained fame and numerous awards, co-directing the Oscar-nominated prison
documentary "The Farm" and co-writing and narrating an award-winning National
Public Radio documentary. Life magazine once called him "the most rehabilitated
prisoner in America."
But the fame also brought tension in this lakeside city near the Texas line. 
Rideau
left for Baton Rouge Sunday morning, and his supporters said they were worried 
for
his safety because of the depth of feeling surrounding the case.
Don Hickman, whose father, branch manager Jay Hickman, was one of two people
whom Rideau shot and left for dead, scoffed at the concern.
"These people here are not going to try to kill him," Hickman said. "I don't 
even
know of any rednecks around here who would be dumb enough to do that."
Franklin, who attended every day of the trial, said he was disappointed in the 
verdict
and that prosecutors "were just out-lawyered."
Rideau's lawyers contended Louisiana's 1960s-era climate of racial hostility ? 
and
three all-white, all-male juries ? made it impossible to get a fair trial.
He was convicted and sentenced to death three times before the Supreme Court
outlawed existing death penalty laws in the 1970s, commuting his sentence.



Then, in 2000, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (news - web sites) again
overturned his conviction, this time because black people were excluded from the
1961 grand jury that indicted him. He was reindicted in 2001 by a mixed-race 
jury.
In his fourth trial, Rideau's defense sought a manslaughter verdict. Prosecutors
wanted the jury to find him guilty of murder to ensure Rideau would end his 
days in
jail, barring a pardon.
"The passage of time has made him older and hopefully wiser, but it certainly 
has
not made him less guilty," Calcasieu Parish District Attorney Rick Bryant told 
the
jury Saturday. "Time and age do not give you innocence."
But shortly before the jury was handed the case, Rideau's attorney Julian Murray
suggested that racism had distorted the crime, keeping local passions inflamed.
"You have to understand that time, and then it comes together," Murray said. 
"You
think they would hesitate to exaggerate the facts of the case, to get the 
result they
wanted?"
The stabbing of Ferguson was "a terrible act, a criminal act, one for which he
deserves great punishment, but not one for which he deserves to be locked up for
the rest of his life," Murray said.
"He did a terrible thing, but it wasn't murder."
___
On the Net:
Rideau: http://www.wilbertrideau.com

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