On April 17, 2012, Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox will enter their 40th year of solitary confinement in Louisiana. Wallace and Woodfox are members of the Angola 3. Along with Robert King, they were accused of murdering a white prison guard in 1972, and they have been in solitary confinement ever since. All three maintain their innocence. The case against them is riddled with inconsistencies. Amnesty International has launched a petition calling for their immediate release from solitary confinement.
King was released in 2001, and he has been campaigning ever since for the release of the others, and against the widespread use of solitary confinement in the US. He has described his 29 years in isolation as "an anguish that is hard to put into words."
Herman Wallace has been collaborating with artist Jackie Sumell to imagine his ideal dwelling space. A film about their collaboration, called Herman's House, will have its world premiere later this month.
Apart from excellent reporting by the BBC and Mother Jones, and a British film, In the Land of the Free, there has been astonishingly little coverage of this case.
You can help to raise awareness by hosting a free screening of In the Land of the Free on your campus or in your community group. The ideal date for this event would be April 17, to mark their 40th year in isolation, but any event, any time, would help to put pressure Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal to release Herman and Albert from solitary confinement.
To arrange for your free screening and to receive a copy of the DVD, just fill out the Contact Us form at the Angola 3.org site and express your interest in hoting an event: http://www.angola3.org/Contactus.aspx.
Along with the Trayvon Martin case, the case of the Angola 3 has the potential to expose the racial bias of the US criminal justice system to a wider public, beyond those who are immediately affected by it.
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