La. Can Try Angola 3 Inmate A Third Time

A federal appeals court ruled on Monday that Louisiana can keep "Angola Three" inmate Albert Woodfox in jail and try him a third time in the 1972 murder of a prison guard, reversing a lower-court ruling earlier this year ordering his release. The 68-year-old is the last incarcerated member of the "Angola Three," a group of prisoners who spent decades in isolation at the Louisiana Penitentiary. Woodfox has consistentily maintained his innocence in the death of guard Brent Miller. U.S. District Judge James Brady ordered Woodfox's release in June, barring a retrial on the grounds that the state could not try the inmate fairly more than 40 years after Miller's death. But the 5th Circuit Court ruled 2-1 that the district court abused its discretion in barring prosecutors from retrying him.