Today, February 26, District Court Judge Brady released a 34-page ruling that granted habeas to Albert Woodfox on the issue of racial discrimination in the selection of the grand jury foreperson for his 1998 retrial. This decision now overturns Albert’s conviction for a third time.
In the 34-page ruling, Judge Brady reviews the arguments of both sides and concludes that Albert's team used the correct baseline for comparison, and that using that baseline, the discrimination is statistically significant no matter which tests are used. It was the State's burden in these proceedings to prove that there was a race neutral procedure in place for selecting forepersons. Judge Brady agreed with Albert that the State failed to do this.
Just as when Judge Brady overturned Albert’s conviction in 2008, the State is now expected to appeal today’s ruling to the 5th Circuit. Therefore, nothing is certain except that the legal team and A3 supporters will not stop fighting until this ruling is affirmed by the 5th Circuit and Albert is finally a free man.
This is an important victory, thanks in no small part to the efforts of our supporters!
As we learn more, we will post updates here, so please check back for more information about Albert’s case. For more background, this is our report from the evidentiary hearing that preceded today's ruling.
View/Download a PDF of Judge Brady's ruling at this link.
No comments:
Post a Comment