Robert King

Robert King, is a civil rights campaigner who spent 31 years incarcerated in a notorious prison in the USA, for a crime he did not commit. King, the only freed member of the Angola 3 who is living, spent 29 years in solitary confinement in Angola Penitentiary, Louisiana – in a six foot by nine foot cell – before his conviction was overturned and he was released on 8 February 2001. The other members of the Angola 3 are Herman Wallace who passed away in 2013 and Albert Woodfox who served 43 years in solitary confinement in a Louisiana state penitentiary.

In 1970, a jury convicted King of a crime he did not commit and sentenced him to 35 years in prison. Whilst serving this sentence, he met Wallace and Woodfox and they formed one of the only recognised Black Panther Party prison chapters and they protested against continued segregation, corruption and abuse facing the largely black prison population within Angola.

In 1972, targeted for their activism, Wallace and Woodfox were convicted for the murder of a prison guard, Brent Miller, despite there being no physical evidence against them. King too was thrown into solitary at Angola because he was under investigation for the Miller murder, even though he was 150 miles away when it happened. He was subsequently accused of the murder of another prisoner in Angola, again convicted by an all white jury on the evidence of unreliable witnesses who all subsequently recanted, before his conviction was overturned in 2001.

Since his release, King’s life’s focus has been to campaign against abuses in the US criminal justice system and the cruel and unusual use of solitary confinement. Globally, politicians and NGO’s have cited the case of the Angola 3 as a gross miscarriage of justice, including Amnesty International who states the long-term use of solitary confinement in the case is a violation of the US Constitution and international human rights treaties. 

King advocates globally on behalf of other political prisoners, including having given evidence at US congressional hearings on solitary, numerous lectures and sharing his testimony with parliaments from Europe, South Africa to Brazil. In October 2012, King received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK for his achievements as a civil rights campaigner. When he is not travelling, (Dr) King lives in Austin Texas and enjoys spending time with friends, his dog Kenya and making praline »freelines« candy which he started making in Angola for prisoners on Death Row.

King has published his story in the  autobiography From the Bottom of the Heap.

Angola Three Website: www.angola3.org
King’s Freelines: www.kingsfreelines.com