Write for Rights: Amnesty Intl USA calls for Albert Woodfox's immediate release

 (Amnesty International artwork)

Today, in conjunction with the "Write for Rights" campaign, Amnesty International USA issued an email action alert focusing on Albert Woodfox, where Amnesty reiterated the organization's call for Albert's immediate release.

Along with urging supporters to add their name to Amnesty's online petition to Louisiana Attorney General James Caldwell, Amnesty is also asking people to write letters to both AG Caldwell and to Albert, with a sample letter and other information available here.

On November 7, a protest march in support of Albert was held in London, England. The following week, following the US Fifth Circuit Court's ruling that Albert can face a third trial, both Amnesty USA and UK issued responses.

Featured below and reprinted in full, is today's email alert sent out by Amnesty USA Senior Campaigner Jasmine Heiss:

There is no other way to describe what's happening to Albert Woodfox - he is trapped in a nightmare.

Not only has he spent more than half of his life in a cell the size of a parking space, he is fighting to prove his innocence in a legal process rife with flaws.
 
Free Albert Woodfox. Join Amnesty International USA's action calling for Albert's immediate release from prison.

Earlier this year, a federal judge ordered Albert's immediate release and told the state of Louisiana that it could not mount a third trial against him. But just last week, an appeals court overturned that decision. If the authorities don't act, he will be forced to stand trial a third time for a murder he maintains he did not commit.

If the Attorney General of Louisiana had not taken every opportunity to block Albert's release, he would already be a free man. This is not justice.

It's pure vengeance. 

Freedom is long overdue. Call on the Attorney General to ensure Albert's release now.

The UN expert on torture has called Albert's prolonged isolation in solitary confinement torture.

Your signature today, along with many others, can help end his nightmare.

Join Amnesty's Write for Rights - the biggest grassroots human rights letter writing event of the year - right now by taking action for Albert.

Albert has said "I constantly ask myself, is this the year of justice and freedom? Or just another year of the same?" Help us make 2016 a year of freedom for Albert and others who are unjustly imprisoned across the world.

In Solidarity,
Jasmine Heiss
Senior Campaigner
Amnesty International USA