LA - Judge frees Angola 3 member Herman Wallace after 40+ years in solitary

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wfgodot

wfgodot

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Terminally ill Angola 3 member granted immediate release; state to appeal ruling. (nola.com)
A judge in Baton Rouge has ordered the immediate release of Herman Wallace, a terminally ill member of the Angola 3 who spent more than four decades in solitary confinement in Louisiana's prisons.

Because there were no women on the jury, District Judge Brian A. Jackson said in his ruling that the former Black Panther and New Orleans native did not receive a fair trial for the 1972 stabbing murder of an Angola prison guard. Nearly 40 years after his conviction, Jackson vacated the grand jury indictment and ordered Wallace's release.

But the state could, and will, attempt to block his release. Although Jackson's ruling overturns Wallace's conviction, the state has 30 days to notify the courts that they plan to re-indict him.
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much more at the link
 
http://www.pbs.org/pov/hermanshouse/film_description.php

More information here about Herman Wallace’s 42 years of solitary confinement as well as info about the documentary, “Herman’s House.”

Herman's House is a portrait of a man who won't give up fighting for his freedom and, inevitably, a critique of a justice system that has confined him for decades in solitary— a condition that some decry as torture. The film is even more the story of an unlikely artistic collaboration that brought thousands of Americans face-to-face with the harsh reality of Wallace's confinement and went on to change profoundly the lives of both the Louisiana prisoner and the New York artist.
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It should be defined as cruel and unusual torture. The point of incarceration is the safety of society and yes punishment to but to drive someone out of their mind is simply wrong. Prisoners should be able to be see others and communicate, unless they are totally unmanageable or dangerous and no one is for 40 years at a time. Solitary should just be used to help someone calm down until they can be medicated or they are able to handle being around others.
 
No way this man can still be sane.

I don't know what his crimes are, guessing they were really bad, but this IS cruel and unusual and should never happen in the U.S. regardless his crimes. 40 years. Who made that decision?!
 
Original crime was armed robbery, which got him into Angola; then the Angola 3 were charged with a guard's death there, though some would say their crimes were attempting to organize fellow prisoners against the degrading conditions in that infamous prison. I think they were stitched up for the guard's murder (but I don't know). They've always maintained innocence. I don't automatically wheel into line with those who do - Mumia, for example, I think deeply guilty, and even Rubin Carter in New Jersey quite possibly (in spite of Dylan's great protest song 'Hurricane'). Here? Fear of the Black Panthers, I think, the charges manufactured from that. Even if they killed, 40+ years in solitary confinement is cruel and unusual punishment and the government is guilty of the torture of its people. (40+ years! All the years since I've graduated from high school.)
 
[video=youtube;85IvBPFdjjM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85IvBPFdjjM[/video]
 
i dont know much about this case, but WTH!?!? serial killers dont even got 40 years in solitary.
 
FigTree said:
Extraordinary article - the statistics and the psychological evaluations blew me away :(
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Yep. I remember when that issue came in the mail. I looked at the article, thought - meh, I'm an only child, I really am sort of a hermit, too, these days - I could stand solitary.

Nope. Not a chance. It's a brilliant and eye-opening and scary read.
 
I think it comes down to the fact that we are not monsters and should not behave like monsters know matter what they have done. Casto is a good example over total outrage and public acknowledgement that confining someone to rooms is torture yet no one says anything about solitary confinement for years.

Here the man is being set free so what suddenly made him less dangerous? Sure cancer but thousands of men and women have cancer and die in prison hospital, so its obvious he wasn't a danger before if they are releasing him now. I honestly feel that murderer or not he deserves recompense from the govt for years of torture and so does anyone in solitary for months let alone years.
 
Another one of the Angola Three is still in and has been in solitary for decades as well.
Look what they are doing to him when they know he can't get anything in or out. Daily Cavity searches.

Together they came to be known as "The Angola Three" after a fellow Black Panther member was the first to discover their decades in isolation in the late 1990s. King was released with the help of inmate rights activists in 2001 after 29 years.

Woodfox still remains in solitary and is currently seeking a restraining order against the state for daily strip and cavity searches he undergoes at David Wade Correctional Center in Homer.
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Gary Tyler - who spend years in solitary - is still in Angola. He's who the Scott Heron song above was written for.

Don't know the case well enough to judge on guilt but the evidence is quite possibly "not there."
 
wfgodot said:
Gary Tyler - who spend years in solitary - is still in Angola. He's who the Scott Heron song above was written for.

Don't know the case well enough to judge on guilt but the evidence is quite possibly "not there."
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And even if it was, he doesn't deserve years of solitary. That crosses the line.
 
Three days of freedom after forty-one years of solitary. Fight the power.
 
Lay your burden down, Mr. Wallace, and rest in eternal peace.
 
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