Human Rights Action - Amnesty International USA
Please forward widely!
Help give Herman Wallace his life back before it's too late.
Last chance at freedom
After surviving four decades of being held in cruel, inhuman and degrading
solitary confinement, Herman Wallace has been diagnosed with terminal liver
cancer. Help free Herman Wallace before it's too late.
Herman Wallace shouldn't have to die behind bars.
Herman is 71 years old and has advanced liver cancer. He
and fellow prisoner Albert Woodfox have been held in
solitary confinement longer than anyone else in modern
U.S. history. The men have spent the past 41 years of
their lives alone in tiny cells for 23 hours a day,
deprived of any meaningful human interaction.
No human being deserves to live like this. Herman
Wallace should not die alone.
Urge Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal to release Herman Wallace.
Why wouldn't Louisiana officials simply release an elderly prisoner with
advanced cancer on humanitarian grounds? Evidence suggests that it is in part
because Herman dared to organize and speak out against inhumane treatment and
racial segregation inside one of United States' most brutal prisons.
Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox are the two imprisoned
members of the ‘Angola 3', three young black men who were
thrown in solitary confinement after working against continued segregation,
systematic corruption, and grave abuses in the infamous Angola prison.
Originally imprisoned for unrelated cases of armed robbery, Herman and Albert
were later convicted for the murder of a prison guard in 1972. However, no
physical evidence links either man to the murder.
In the decades since Herman and Albert's conviction,
numerous legal concerns have risen to the surface from
the racially charged underbelly of the U.S. prison
system. These are just a few glaring flaws we documented
in our report ‘100 Years in Solitary: The 'Angola 3' and
their Fight for Justice' :
* DNA evidence that might have established the men's innocence was
somehow "lost"
* Outcomes were based on questionable inmate testimony
* Prison officials bribed the main eyewitness
* One witness later retracted his testimony
Prison authorities have broken their own policies to justify Herman's continued
incarceration in harsh and inhumane conditions. After decades in these
conditions, a highly questionable conviction that continues to be challenged by
the courts and the now a tragic prognosis of terminal cancer, the next step
seems all too clear: Herman Wallace should be released.
Help begin to correct more than 40 years of injustice right now - call on
Louisiana's Governor Bobby Jindal to release Herman Wallace immediately.
In Solidarity,
Jasmine Heiss
Amnesty International USA
P.S. Please join us in reminding the two men that we are
standing with them, even if the state of Louisiana tries
to keep them in isolation. Send your letter of support directly
to Herman and Albert - show them you care.
1. http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/amr510412011en_0.pdf
© 2013 Amnesty International USA | 5 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10001 |
212.807.8400
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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