Guardian UK: Solitary confinement for 35 years: justice, the American way?

[marmar]

Solitary confinement for 35 years: justice, the American way?
Their convictions have been overturned and the US press is watching, but Woodfox and Wallace are still in prison

Helen Kinsella
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday August 05 2008 19:30 BST



What keeps a man locked up in an American prison, not only when the evidence against him is so poor that the head of the United States house judiciary committee takes a specific interest and mainstream US media start to take note but also, more importantly, when his conviction has been overturned?

In the past two months, two judicial rulings have acknowledged decades of injustice in the case of Albert Woodfox, found guilty 35 years ago of the 1972 murder of a guard in Angola prison, Louisiana.

In June, a Louisiana magistrate recommended the reversal of the 61-year-old's conviction due to evidence of prosecutorial misconduct, inadequate representation, and racial discrimination, in his 1973 trial. That report, which found in favour of Woodfox on every claim that he made, was appealed by the state, but a federal judge rejected their appeal last month, approved the magistrate's ruling and overturned the conviction. That would, technically, set Woodfox free.

In the six months since Comment is free published the story, the case of Woodfox and fellow inmate Herman Wallace (convicted of the same crime) has been hurled to an unprecedented extent into US public consciousness through major mainstream media coverage, including on primetime programme NBC Nightly News and the front page of the LA Times.

The validity of the evidence in favour of the men has been recently underlined by the extraordinary involvement of John Conyers, chair of the US house judiciary committee, which oversees the justice department (including the FBI) and the federal courts. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/05/usa.prisonsandprobation