UPDATE: Angola Three member Herman Wallace died this morning at 5:30 a.m. Louisiana time, less than three days after he was released from prison and less than a day after a grand jury re-indicted him. He was 71 years old.
Just days after he was released from prison following nearly 42 years in solitary confinement, dying Angola Three member Herman Wallace has been re-indicted by a Louisiana grand jury for the 1972 murder of a prison guard. Wallace, who is dying of liver cancer, was released Tuesday into the arms of his supporters after a judge overturned his conviction, saying women were wrongly excluded from the jury that indicted him. Wallace and Albert Woodfox, who remains in prison, were convicted of murder without any physical evidence and despite the fact that a bloody fingerprint at the scene was not theirs. They say they were targeted for their Black Panther organizing, along with a third member, Robert King, who was eventually released after being held for a different crime he did not commit. Wallace has served more time in solitary confinement consecutively than any other U.S. prisoner. District Attorney Sam D’Aquilla said a date will be set by the end of the year for him to appear in court again. He told The New Orleans Advocate, “I say he is a murderer.” Wallace’s legal team said in a statement, “We are shocked that a state grand jury was asked to indict a man who has only days to live.”