One of "Angola Three" speaks on prison experience

According to convicted felon Robert Hillary King, slavery still exists in America - and it calls itself prison.

A crowd of nearly 100 gathered last night to see the 66-year-old King, who was formerly imprisoned in Angola State Penitentiary, speak in Claudia Cohen Hall on the injustices of the American judicial system. King is one of the "Angola 3," along with fellow Black Panther Party members Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace.

King, born Robert Hillary Wilkinson, gave the audience a brief sketch of his experiences with the judicial and prison system, which he likened to defacto slavery.

King was born in New Orleans as a black man in a time of "blatant and overt racism," he said. He was first arrested in 1961 for armed robbery.

Due to his record, King was promptly arrested again soon after his release. This time, he was convicted of an armed robbery he maintains he "did not commit." He was told he could either plea bargain for 15 years or receive the maximum sentence of 35.

King rejected the plea bargain and fought the charge, which resulted in a 32-year prison sentence to be served in Angola State Penitentiary, Louisiana - which he described as "the most vile and infested prison at that time in the United States."

While in jail, his frustration with the "gross injustice of the system" spurred him to escape in 1971, a fact Wharton junior Randy Barr found "astonishing given the high level of security in prisons" like Angola.

King was soon turned in and returned to jail, where his sentence was upgraded from 32 years to life. He then turned his attention to political activism through the Black Panther Party.

It was through these affiliations that he met two other members - Woodfox and Herman.

During his time in jail, the murder of a prison guard implicated Woodfox and Wallace due to their statuses as "threats to the system," said King. King himself was implicated in the murder also, despite having been 150 miles away from the prison at the time of the incident, awaiting trial for his attempted escape.

King explained that a fellow prisoner had been paid by the guards to testify against the innocent King, who was subsequently put in solitary confinement in a six by nine foot cell for a crime he did not commit.

Released from prison 29 years later, King is famous for saying that "though he is free of Angola, Angola is not free of" him.

Indeed, College sophomore Katie McCarthy was inspired by "King's devotion to remedying the injustices he himself has suffered."

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