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  • Angola 3 Inmate Dies Days After Being Released

    Herman Wallace, just three days after being released from prison, died on Friday morning. He was 71 years old and died after a tough battle with liver cancer. Just days ago, he made news when he was released from solitary confinement after four decades of being locked up for a crime that he did not commit.

    Wallace was one of the “Angola 3,” a group of inmates who protested what they said were injustices at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Wallace and two other inmates were convicted of armed robbery in 1971 and sent to Angola Prison. The next year, the three men were charged with the stabbing of prison guard Brent Miller, which resulted in his death. As a result, the three of them were placed in solitary confinement and while there were no fingerprints found, they were found guilty.

    In addition to Wallace, the Angola 3 was made up of Albert Woodfox and Robert King. It has been said that the targeting of these men was race related and while at the prison, Wallace founded a chapter of the Black Panthers. CNN states that both Wallace and Woodfox claim to have been targeted because of their activism with the Black Panther party. The Angola 3 was also the subject of a documentary called In The Land of The Free, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson.

    It was previously said that he was not likely to live for more than a couple months and his time was cut much shorter than that. After many years of being locked up, he was only given a few days to live on the outside, but at least he died a free man. In the decision to release Wallace from prison, the judge said on Tuesday that his petition was granted because women were excluded from the grand jury in his case four decades ago, which violates the 14th amendment of the US constitution, according to NBC News.

    Wallace’s attorney, George Kendall, said that he died at a friend’s home with friends and family near his bedside. He also mentioned that “He was determined that (solitary confinement) was not going to break him.” Wallace was able to prevail after a long struggle of a prison sentence and die peacefully, where he was comfortable and surrounded by loved ones, as Kendall mentioned. The other Angola 3 members have had a very different fate, with King being released in 2001, after 29 years of isolation and Woodfox’s case is still pending before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

    Upon his return to home, he was greeted by a large number of people in the street, chanting in his honor.

    Image via Youtube

  • Solitary Confinement: Dying Inmate, 71, Freed Four Decades Later

    After spending 41 years in solitary confinement for a murder he says he didn’t commit, Herman Wallace was freed on Tuesday. To add insult to injury, the 71-year-old Louisiana man has lung cancer and isn’t expected to live for more than a couple of months.

    Wallace is part of the Angola Three, a group of black men that are said to be victims of racial discrimination. The three men were placed in solitary confinement after being accused of murdering a white prison guard at Louisiana State Penitentiary, also called Angola Prison.

    Wallace and two other men–Robert Hillary King and Albert Woodfox–were sent to Angola Prison after being convicted of armed robbery in 1971. The next year, Wallace and Woodfox were accused of stabbing prison guard Brent Miller to death, and all three men were placed in solitary confinement. The men were only allowed out of their small cells for one hour per day to shower or exercise.

    The three men were reportedly part of a Black Panther group in Angola at the time of Miller’s murder. Even though no fingerprints were found on the knife used to kill Miller, the two men were found guilty, which many believe was race-related. The Angola Three was the subject of the documentary In the Land of the Free, which was narrated by Samuel L. Jackson. Amnesty International had the Angola Three on their list of political prisoners.

    U.S. District Chief Judge Brian Jackson in Baton Rouge overturned Wallace’s murder conviction, saying that Wallace’s rights were violated because women were excluded from the jury.

    “The record in this case makes clear that Mr. Wallace’s grand jury was improperly chosen in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of ‘the equal protection of the laws’…and that the Louisiana courts, when presented with the opportunity to correct this error, failed to do so,” Jackson wrote in his ruling.

    Louisiana could start another case against Wallace, but that is unlikely since he doesn’t have long to live. “Nothing can be done for me medically within the standard care that (my oncologists) are authorized to provide,” Wallace said in a statement last month. “They recommended that I be admitted to hospice care to make my remaining days as comfortable as possible. I have been given two months to live.

    Wallace still maintains his innocence regarding Miller’s death. “I want the world to know that I am an innocent man and that Albert Woodfox is innocent as well,” he said. “The state may have stolen my life, but my spirit will continue to struggle along with Albert and the many comrades that have joined us along the way here in the belly of the beast.”

    Image via YouTube