Earlier this month, Transformation: Where Love Meets Justice, a digital publication of openDemocracy, published an article I wrote about the solitary confinement of Herman Wallace, one of the Angola 3, held in solitary confinement for more than 40 years for allegedly murdering a prison guard at the Angola Prison.
No physical evidence ties Mr. Wallace to the murder. The testimony of the only witness in the case has long been discredited. Mr. Wallace and the other two men accused of the crime claim that they were framed in retaliation for forming a chapter of the Black Panther Party in Angola Prison. The widow of the slain guard has spent most of her adult life working to exonerate the Angola 3.
Mr. Wallace was released from prison earlier this month in a cell not much larger than the sofa in my living room for four decades. Mr. Wallace died just three days later of liver cancer.
The injustice of his conviction speaks volumes about how broken our criminal justice system is, but his solitary confinement says even more about who we are as a society. The freedom of Mr. Wallace and so many others still being held in such circumstances is not all that has been lost through this cruel and unusual form of punishment. The humanity of his captors is also a victim. Read the article here…
One reply on “The Solitary Confinement of Herman Wallace”
[…] “The injustice of his conviction speaks volumes about how broken our criminal justice system is, but his solitary confinement says even more about who we are as a society. The freedom of Mr. Wallace and so many others still being held in such circumstances is not all that has been lost through this cruel and unusual form of punishment.” See on http://www.racefiles.com […]