Angola 3

[Vandy Vol]

Herman Wallace of the Angola 3 was freed yesterday.  He's 71 and terminally ill with liver cancer.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/01/justice/angola-3-former-black-panther-ordered-released/index.html?sr=fb100213solconfine930a

After more than 40 years of having his claims of an unjust murder conviction go unanswered, Louisiana inmate Herman Wallace is now a free man.

But it may be a Pyrrhic victory.

Wallace, who spent decades in solitary confinement, is terminally ill with liver cancer.

He was released after a judge vacated his murder conviction and sentence, one of his attorneys told CNN.

State officials had been threatened with contempt if they did not release Wallace immediately.

Wallace, 71, is one of the "Angola 3" -- three inmates who claim they tried to point out injustices at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola during the late 1960s and 1970s.

Wallace's sisters, nieces and nephews wanted him moved to hospice care in New Orleans, said one of his attorneys.

"He has claimed there was an unfair trial for 41 years and finally we have that ruling," attorney Nick Trenticosta told CNN on Tuesday night. "For him to pass on from this world with friends and family at his side is extremely important."

The release came hours after U.S. District Chief Judge Brian A. Jackson in Baton Rouge said that women were systematically excluded from the grand jury that indicted Wallace in the 1972 slaying of a guard at Louisiana State Penitentiary.

. . .

Wallace was in solitary confinement at Angola until 2009, when he was moved to Hunt Correctional Center. He remained in solitary until his diagnosis, according to Trenticosta.

. . .

Albert Woodfox and Wallace were convicted in the 1972 killing of Angola guard Brent Miller; a third inmate, Robert King, also known as Robert K. Wilkerson, also protested prison conditions. Together, they were known as the "Angola 3."

Woodfox and Wallace claimed they were targeted because of their activism as Black Panthers.

Wallace, who was serving an armed robbery sentence at the time of Miller's death, and Woodfox "were threatening the status quo," Trenticosta said.

King was transferred to Angola just weeks after the guard was killed. Even so, he was investigated as a possible "conspirator" and put into solitary confinement alongside Wallace and Woodfox, according to the documentary "In the Land of the Free." He was never convicted in connection with Miller's death.

King was convicted in 1973 of killing a fellow inmate. His conviction was overturned in 2001, and he was freed.