Prison Journalist's Conviction Thrown Out

N E W  O R L E A N S, Dec. 22, 2000 -- 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.

Polozola also said there was no evidence that the grand jurylist was compiled to systematically exclude blacks. The LouisianaSupreme Court also ruled, twice, that there was no such evidence.

But now, the case goes back to Polozola with instructions thatthe state be given a reasonable time to reindict and retry Rideau,or he must be freed.

In 1961, when he was just 19, Rideau robbed a bank and tookthree hostages. While they begged for their lives, he shot them.One of the victims escaped. One, shot in the neck, feigned death.The third tried to crawl away and Rideau stabbed her and slashedher throat.

‘A Chance to Try to Make Amends’

He was convicted and sentenced to death, but while waiting forhis date in the electric chair, Rideau was reborn. He taughthimself to read and began writing.

“I didn’t want a criminal act to be the final definition ofme,” Rideau said in a 1999 Associated Press interview. “I pickedup a pen and tried to do something good. It allowed me to weavemeaning into what would have been a meaningless existence. It alsogave me a chance to try to make amends.”

In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s deathpenalty and Rideau was resentenced to life in prison.

Refused a job by the then all-white staff of the prisonmagazine, The Angolite, Rideau started his own publication, TheLifer, and began writing a weekly column for a group of blacknewspapers. In 1976, he was named editor of The Angolite andtransformed it.

More recently, he gained attention for helping make adocumentary about Angola, The Farm, which was nominated for anOscar and won a prize for documentaries at the Sundance FilmFestival in 1998.

Governors Refused to Pardon Him

Rideau bills himself as “The Most Rehabilitated Prisoner inAmerica.” He has gained Pardon Board recommendations for releasesince 1984, but so far a series of governors have refused,including Edwin Edwards who pardoned 89 murderers before leavingoffice in 1996. Supporters say he is the only one of 31 murdererssent to Angola in 1962 who has not been freed.

“If all those people were still in prison, I’d say what’shappened to me is fair,” Rideau said last year. “But they aren’t.I get post cards from a former inmate who killed four people. He’sout and I’m not.”

Prison officials at Angola said Rideau would not be madeavailable for comment today.

“We’re the keeper of the keys and we’ll do whatever the courtstell us to do,” said Cathy Jett, prison spokeswoman.