(April 2013 photo of Herman Wallace)

Angola 3s Herman Wallace, Gravely Ill, Still Held in Isolation

By James Ridgeway and Jean Casella

(Reprinted with permission from Solitary Watch)

Herman Wallace, 71, has been diagnosed with liver cancer. He is being held in a locked prison hospital room at the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center at St. Gabriel, Louisiana. The prognosis is grave, according to persons with direct knowledge of the situation. Wallace is one of the two members of the Angola 3 who, along with Albert Woodfox, is still being held in solitary after more than 41 years.

Tessa Murphy, U.S. Campaigner for Amnesty International, which has taken up the case, said in an email, “The tens of thousands of Amnesty International supporters worldwide who have campaigned over the years for justice in Herman and Albert’s case will be devastated by this sad news. Herman and Albert have been held in cruel conditions of confinement for over 40 years without meaningful review; neither of the men have disciplinary record to indicate that they are a threat to themselves, fellow prisoners or staff, and the Louisiana prison authorities have since 1996 broken their own policy to justify the men’s continued detention under these conditions.’’

Wallace and Woodfox were placed in solitary confinement at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola in 1972, following the murder of prison guard Brent Miller. The men believe they were originally targeted for the murder, and have been held in isolation ever since, because of their association with the Black Panther Party. (The third member of the Angola 3, Robert King, was freed in 2001 when his conviction for the murder of a fellow prisoner was overturned; he had spent 29 years in solitary.) Several years ago, the two men were transferred out of Angola and sent to separate, distant prisons, where they have remained in solitary.

Angola Warden Burl Cain has stated in a deposition that “Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace is locked in time with that Black Panther revolutionary actions they were doing way back when.” For this reason, he says, they must remain in solitary, because if he released them to the general population “I would have me all kinds of problems, more than I could stand, and I would have the blacks chasing after them.” Louisiana Attorney General James “Buddy” Caldwell has likewise promised to keep Wallace and Woodfox behind bars. (Caldwell also claims they “have never been held in solitary confinement.”)

Both men have been fighting to have their convictions overturned by the federal courts, claiming they are based on highly questionable evidence. Woodfox’s conviction was overturnedfor the third time earlier this year, but he remains in prison while the state appeals. Wallace lost his latest challenge, but continues to fight in the courts. At the same time, a civil case has been filed challenging the men’s four decades of solitary confinement on First, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment grounds.

For 41 years, Wallace and Woodfox have spent at least 23 hours a day in cells measuring 6 feet by 9 feet. They are sometimes allowed out one hour a day to take a shower or a walk along the cellblock. Three days a week, they may use that hour to exercise alone in a fenced yard. In their civil suit, their lawyers argue that both have endured physical injury and “severe mental anguish and other psychological damage” from living most of their adult lives in lockdown. According to medical reports submitted to the court, the men suffer from arthritis, hypertension, and kidney failure, as well as memory impairment, insomnia, claustrophobia, anxiety, and depression. Even the psychologist brought in by the state confirmed these findings.

“The injustice of being held under such harsh, restrictive and inhumane conditions for over four decades is compounded by the serious legal concerns that have emerged in their cases over the years of litigation, Amnesty’s Murphy said. “Amnesty International will continue its fight for justice for Herman and Albert; with the terrible news of Herman’s health, this fight becomes more important than ever.”

Two months ago Wallace had complained of feeling ill. Prison doctors diagnosed his condition as a stomach fungus and put him on antibiotics. By last week, he had lost 45 pounds, and was sent to a local hospital, where he received the news that he has liver cancer. He was returned to prison after a few days.

A team of lawyers, an outside doctor who has taken care of Wallace for years, and a psychologist briefly visited Wallace last week in a prison hospital room. Wallace was not manacled or shackled. The door was locked. There is no television and little contact with the outside world. Telephone privileges which were made available in the beginning have been revoked by the prison. According to one source, a warden ordered visitors out after ten minutes. “The level of inhumanity I am not used to,” said Nick Trenticosta, one of Wallace’s attorneys in Louisiana. “I am used to bloodthirsty prosecutors who want to kill people, but not this sort of thing.”

For Albert Woodfox, 66, who lived in solitary nearby Wallace at Angola and still keeps in touch by letter, the news was shocking. According to his brother Michael Mable,who saw Albert over last weekend, his brother is depressed and “afraid of dying in this prison.” Mable was only able to see Woodfox through a glass partition, and Woodfox sat with his hands manacled and feet shackled while a captain and a lieutenant stood behind him, Mable said. Woodfox was strip searched, even though the interview was just a short ways from his cell. He is allowed one visit a month. Woodfox suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure, and hepatitis.

It is not yet clear what the next steps will be for Herman Wallace in terms of medical care. Because the prison medical record appears scant, doctors are anxious for Wallace to see an oncologist at an outside hospital. He may go there some time this week.

Asked whether the state would consider compassionate release or hospice care for Wallace, Pam Laborde, Communications Director for the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, said, “As you hopefully understand, I am not in a position to discuss an offender’s medical condition due to privacy concerns.”

In a 2006 letter to Jackie Sumell, an artist with whom he is collaborating on a project called The House That Herman Built (now the subject of a documentary film), Herman Wallace wrote: “I’m often asked what did I come to prison for; and now that I think about it Jackie, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what I came here for, what matters now is what I leave with. And I can assure you, however I leave, I won’t leave nothing behind.”

(April 2013 photo of Herman)

Reprinted below is a statement from Amnesty International, made in response to an email released last week by Louisiana Attorney General James Caldwell, where among other things, he claimed that the Angola 3 "have never been in solitary confinement." Please support Amnestys campaign urging Caldwell to not appeal last months ruling that overturned Albert Woodfoxs conviction for a third time. Take action here!


Louisiana’s “justice” keeps man locked up in isolation for over 40 years

By Amnesty International

March 26, 2013

Albert Woodfox has spent more than half his life in a cell just three paces wide and four paces long.

The 66-year-old man was convicted in 1972 of the murder of Brent Miller, a prison guard.

He claims he is innocent and organizations including Amnesty International have said his case raises serious legal and human rights concerns.

A federal district court in Louisiana recently ruled that his conviction should be overturned.

But Louisiana Attorney General James Caldwell has said he will appeal the ruling.

He says Albert Woodfox is a “career criminal” who should remain behind bars.

The case continues to paint a disturbing picture of justice in Louisiana.

In 2008, the same federal district court issued a ruling that overturned Albert Woodfox’s conviction though he remained in prison pending the bail hearing.

During this time, the Attorney General’s office emailed the neighbours of Woodfox’s niece, to whom he was intended to be released on bail, to advise them that that her uncle was a violent rapist and convicted murderer. He urged the neighbours to sign petitions to oppose his release.

When the federal district court subsequently ordered that Woodfox be released on bail, the judge criticized the Attorney General’s intimidation campaign.

Despite the bail order, Woodfox remained in prison following another intervention by the Attorney General who appealed this recommendation to a higher court.

Attorney General Caldwell has recently renewed his public attacks, circulating allegations about Woodfoxs alleged criminal activities in the 1960s, linking him to unsolved rapes and sexual assaults, and insisting that the states murder case against Woodfox is "very strong".

Setting the record straight

Albert Woodfox has never been tried or convicted of rape. Nor, after 41 years in prison, does his disciplinary record indicate that he is dangerous or violent. The prison system’s own mental health assessments indicate that he does not pose a threat to himself or others.

He has been tried twice for the murder of Brent Miller. The first conviction was overturned and he was retried and reconvicted. That conviction was overturned and then reinstated on appeal. Now this latest ruling overturns the conviction again.

At the original trial, the conviction relied heavily on testimony from Hezekiah Brown – who was the only witness to testify to actually seeing Albert commit the murder - as well as statements from four other fellow inmates.

There was no physical evidence linking Albert Woodfox to the murder. DNA evidence that was potentially favourable to the defendant has been lost - a bloody fingerprint found close to the body didn’t match any of the four defendants, and no attempt has been made by the State or prison officials to identify it through the prison fingerprint database.

Evidence has emerged since Hezekiah Brown’s death in 1996 that in return for his testimony, he had received benefits from the state – including immediate transfer from the prison to a cottage on the grounds and a weekly ration of a carton of cigarettes.

For more than 10 years, the Warden petitioned repeatedly for a pardon for Brown, which was finally granted in 1986.

According to a magistrate judge who reviewed the case in 2008, Brown’s testimony was “so critical to [the prosecution’s] case that without it there would probably be no case.”

Two of the four eyewitnesses who testified to Albert Woodfox’s involvement in the crime have since recanted their testimony. One has stated that he made up his testimony because he had been told by officials that they would help him transfer out of Angola prison.

Colonel Nyati Bast, a former inmate, testified during Albert Woodfox’s first trial that he was with him in the dining hall at the time of the attack on Brent Miller, which took place in another part of the prison.

Bast was placed in solitary confinement soon after he revealed this information to prison officials, and remained there for the duration of his 20-year sentence. He stands by his original testimony.

Of the remaining witnesses, one was legally blind and the other was heavily medicated at the time of the murder.

Real justice

The inconsistencies and flaws in the legal process led Brent Miller’s widow in 2008 to call for a new investigation into the case: “If they did not do this – and I believe they didn’t – they have been living a nightmare for 36 years”.

Albert Woodfox has been kept in solitary confinement for more than 40 years – held for 23 hours a day in a small, starkly furnished cell, and allowed out only to walk along the cell corridor, shower or exercise alone.

He has been deprived of access to work, rehabilitative programmes and group activity. As a consequence of these conditions, his physical and mental health has deteriorated.

Amnesty International is appealing to the Attorney General not to appeal the District Court’s recent ruling.

“Enough is enough. After four decades, real justice in this case is long overdue.” said Tessa Murphy, USA Campaigner at Amnesty International. “The ruling by the federal district court should be allowed to stand.”