Like many since watching the documentary In The Land Of The Free, I have followed the progress of the Angola 3. Three inmates placed in solidarity confinement, after the 1972 killing of a prison guard.
I guess the obvious question is, why waste any breath on three men who killed a prison guard?
Like so many things though, all is not as it seems.
Despite the convictions, among other things no physical evidence linked the men to the crime.
Robert King spent 29 years in solitary confinement at the Louisiana State Penitentiary also known as Angola Prison, before his conviction was overturned and he was released.
Herman Wallace was released in October 2013, having spent 40 years in solitary confinement. He died three days later, having suffered with cancer.
Despite Albert Woodfox‘s conviction being overturned by the US Court of Appeals in November 2014, he remains imprisoned as the longest-standing solitary confinement prisoner in US history. As of this date that is some 42 years, and he remains there.
The three men had been imprisoned at Angola for unrelated crimes, to the killing of the guard.
It was after their imprisonment that, they were then accused and convicted of the murder. Woodfox and Wallace were said to have committed the crime, with King as an accomplice.
The convictions have been overturned by several courts, so why are they still imprisoned?
Justice has to be two ways for those who are found not guilty of a crime too, Albert deserves his freedom.