Angola 3 Appeal Denied
By James Ridgeway | Fri October 9, 2009
Convicted of the 1972 murder of a prison
guard at the notorious Louisiana State
Penitentiary at Angola, both men maintain their
innocence; they believe they were targeted for
the crime and relegated to permanent lockdown because of their organizing
work with the prison chapter of the Black
Panthers. Wallace, who is now 68 years old, was
recently transferred from Angola to the Hunt
Correctional Center near Baton Rouge, where he
continues to be held in solitary. Two days ago,
Wallace descended even deeper into the hole,
placed in a disciplinary unit called Beaver 5 for
unknown violations of prison policy.
Herman Wallace launched the appeal of his
conviction nearly a decade ago. His lawyers have
introduced substantial evidence showing that the
state?s star witness, a fellow prisoner named
Hezekiah Brown, was offered special treatment and
an eventual pardon in exchange for his testimony
against Wallace and Woodfox. In 2006, a judicial
commissioner assigned to study the case found
that there were grounds for overturning the
conviction, but Wallace?s application was
subsequently denied--by the state district court,
court of appeals, and now by the Louisiana Supreme Court.
While every setback comes as a blow to a man
nearing 70 who has spent nearly four decades in
lockdown, one of Wallace's attorneys said tonight
that this denial by the state's highest court
came as no surprise, since it has a reputation
for refusing to overturn the decisions of lower
courts. Today's ruling opens the doors to a
federal habeas corpus challenge, beginning with
the Federal District Court for the Middle
District of Louisiana at Baton Rouge. Here, if
Wallace is lucky, his case will be reviewed by a
fact-finding federal magistrate, and his
conviction overturned by a federal judge. This is
what happened to Albert Woodfox last year. Yet
Woodfox, too, remains in prison--and in solitary
confinement--as the state appeals the judge's decision.
Louisiana?s Attorney General, James "Buddy"
Caldwell, has stated that he opposes releasing
the two men "with every fiber of my being," while
the Warden of Angola and Hunt prisons, Burl Cain,
has more than once suggested that the two men
must be held in solitary because they ascribe to
"Black Pantherism." In addition to their criminal
appeals, Wallace and Woodfox (along with Robert
King, who was released in 2001), have a case
pending on constitutional grounds. They argue
that the conditions and duration of their time in
solitary confinement constitute cruel and unusual
punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment,
and that they are being held there for their
political beliefs, in violation of the First Amendment.
file:////mojo/2009/10/angola-3-appeal-denied
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