Prison Journalist's Conviction Thrown Out
N E W O R L E A N S, Dec. 22 -- A federal appeals court today threw outthe murder conviction of Wilbert Rideau, saying the celebratedprison journalist was the victim of racially biased selection ofthe grand jury that indicted him in 1961.
The court ordered that he be set free if the state does notquickly retry him.
The prosecutor plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Behind Bars for Nearly 40 Years
Rideau has been held at Louisiana State Prison at Angola fornearly 40 years. In 1976 he was named editor of The Angolite andtransformed it from a mimeographed newsletter into a slickbimonthly magazine that has won a string of awards.
Rideau, 58, has never denied he killed a bank teller in 1961.The black inmate argued that blacks were excluded from thepredominantly white grand jury that indicted him. Today, the5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.
Only one black was on the 20-member grand jury that indictedRideau. The appeals court said blacks were excluded in violation ofequal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
“The state produced no evidence to rebut any portion ofRideau’s prima facie case in either the two state evidentiaryhearings or the federal district court proceedings,” the appealscourt said.
“Rideau’s conviction must be reversed and hisunconstitutionally obtained indictment quashed,” it said.
Said Julian Murray, Rideau’s attorney: “It’s been a long timein coming, but I’m glad its finally here.”
Prosecutors Will Appeal
Calcasieu Parish District Attorney F. Wayne Frey said hecouldn’t comment in detail because he didn’t have a copy of theopinion, but he did say that his office would appeal to the U.S.Supreme Court.
U.S. District Judge Frank Polozola had rejected Rideau’s pleafor freedom last year, saying that he had prejudiced the state’schances in any retrial by waiting so long to appeal. By now, mostof the witnesses are dead, the judges are dead, the murder weaponscannot be found and grand jury records from the time have beendiscarded, Polozola said.
