SCOT NAKAGAWA - Herman Wallace was held in a cage for 40 years. What does this say about us?
By the time Herman Wallace was released from prison earlier this month, he had been kept in solitary confinement for over 40 years. He died shortly after his release. Yet there was no physical evidence to link him to his alleged crime. Is this justice?
By the time Herman Wallace was released from prison in Louisiana on October 1st 2013, he had been held in solitary confinement for over 40 years. His release was ordered by federal judge Brian A. Jackson because women had been excluded from the jury that convicted him of killing a prison guard in 1974.
Three days after his release, Wallace died of liver cancer. He was 71 years old.
Wallace was originally arrested for burglary and incarcerated in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known as Angola. Angola is no ordinary prison. It's a work camp that harkens back to the immediate post-Civil War era, when special laws called black codes targeting former slaves were instituted throughout the South in order to facilitate the mass incarceration of newly freed black men. Once imprisoned, they were leased to private industries as virtual slaves. Angola is overwhelmingly black. In many respects, it functions like the former plantation on which it was built.
In 1971, Wallace and two other prisoners formed a chapter of the Black Panther Party at Angola. According to Wallace, this act resulted in prison authorities labelling them “black militants”, and framing them for the murder of white prison guard, Brent Miller, in 1972. They became known as the “Angola 3.”
Miller was stabbed to death, but no physical evidence linked Wallace and his associates to the crime. Miller and the Angola 3 weren't the only victims in this case. Teenie Verret, Miller's widow, has given most of her adult life to vindicating the innocence of the three men convicted of killing her husband. On three separate occasions, courts have agreed with Verret and overturned Wallace's conviction. Each time he was re-convicted by another court.
For nearly 42 years, Herman Wallace lived alone in a six foot by nine-foot cell. As a comparison, a king sized bed measures six feet by six feet, while a medium sized sofa is about six by three. He was placed in solitary confinement in this tiny space for longer than any other prisoner in U.S. history for a crime no one can prove he committed. DNA evidence that might have cleared the three men has been lost, and the testimony of the main eyewitness in the case has been discredited. In fact, Wallace’s release on October 1st was based on the theory that the jury in his case was rigged.
The news of Wallace's death brought me to tears. I don't normally find myself crying over the plight of a stranger but this news exposed a well of grief I thought I'd buried a good many years ago... read more:
