Robert King: ‘I don’t have time to be angry. I will fight till the day I die’

Imagine just for a minute that the only world you inhabit for three decades is a cell maybe five steps long and three steps wide. Days turn into weeks, weeks to months and months to years. The possibility of losing your mind and fading into oblivion is very real.

Last night was the Human Rights Watch London film festival premiere of ‘in the land of the free’. This film documents the shocking and unbelievable story of ex-Black Panther activists Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox and Robert King- known as the Angola three. These three men together have spent a century in solitary confinement for crimes they did not commit.

For more than 37 years, Herman and Albert have been locked away in Angola’s maximum security closed cell restricted bloc. This is the longest period of solitary confinement in American prison history.

This story is a powerful testament to these three men’s inner strength. They have shown true courage in the face of audacity. They fought  their convictions from their cells and did not give up the hope that one day their story would be heard.

‘I thought that my cause was then and now noble. They might bend me a little. They might cause me a lot of pain. They might even take my life. But they will never break me. We are fighting for people to understand that we were framed. We were framed for a murder that we are completely, totally and actually innocent of.'

Robert King was released from Angola Prison on the 8th of February 2001. He has vowed that he will ‘fight till the day he dies’ to see justice granted to Herman and Albert. He believes that the documentary will ensure that their story is heard. ‘You throw pebbles in a pond and you get ripples," he says. "I see this as a huge rock."

I hope this film encourages those who have for so long chosen to ignore the plight of these men to take action. You must see it.