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Amnesty International: Herman Wallace of the Angola 3 Diagnosed with Liver Cancer, Send Messages of Support |
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Herman Wallace of Angola 3 Diagnosed with Liver Cancer, Send Messages of Support
By Jasmine Heiss, Amnesty International USA's Individuals & Communities at Risk Campaigner
After 41 years in solitary confinement, Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace of the Angola 3 have lived through a nightmare that no human being should have to endure. We work on their case with the hope that, one day, we can share the news that these men have been released from solitary and have seen justice.
But today is not that day. Today I am deeply saddened to tell you that 71-year-old Herman Wallace has been diagnosed with liver cancer, after spending the majority of his life isolated in a small cell, four steps long, by three steps across for 23 hours a day. I've often described the Angola 3 case as "injustice compounded" -- that description has never rung more true than today.
Albert and Herman were convicted of murdering a prison guard at Louisiana's Angola prison more than four decades ago. The two men were placed in solitary confinement and kept there, even as significant flaws in their trial rose to the surface from the dark, racially charged underbelly of the US prison system: potentially exculpatory evidence mysteriously "missing," the retraction of eyewitness testimony and even compelling proof that the state bribed a key eyewitness.
On February 26, 2013, a federal district court ruled to put an end to this shameful legacy of injustice, overturning the conviction of Albert Woodfox for the third time. Louisiana's attorney general appealed the ruling, however, so Albert's case is still pending in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Herman's case is also under Federal Court scrutiny on the basis of prosecutorial conduct and constitutional violations -- but as the wheels of justice grind slowly, Herman's time is running out.
Read the full statement here.
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Over 40 years ago in Louisiana, 3 young black men were silenced for trying to expose continued segregation, systematic corruption, and horrific abuse in the biggest prison in the US, an 18,000-acre former slave plantation called Angola. In 1972 and (more...)
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