Louisiana prisoner released after 41 years in solitary

Herman Wallace
Herman Wallace

originally by: The Guardian 
published: 2 October 2013

A 71-year-old Louisiana prisoner who spent 41 years in solitary confinement and is now dying of cancer was released from prison late on Tuesday, his lawyers said.

Late on Tuesday, US district chief judge Brian Jackson in Baton Rouge denied the state’s motion seeking to block his earlier order overturning Herman Wallace’s 1974 murder conviction in the death of Angola prison guard Brent Miller.

Jackson had also ordered a new trial because women were unconstitutionally excluded from the grand jury that indicted Wallace in the guard’s death. He ordered him to be released immediately.

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Death row mum cleared of killing son after 22 years in jail

Debra Jean Milke
Debra Jean Milke

all credits: The Mirror
published: 15 March 2013

A mum who spent 22 years on death row has had her conviction overturned. A US appeal court ruled today that Debra Jean Milke, 48, was wrongly found guilty of murdering her four-year-old son Christopher.

They say police failed to reveal that a detective who gave key evidence against her had a history of lying under oath.

German-born Milke had been given a date for her execution by lethal injection. She would have been the first woman executed in Arizona since 1930.

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The impossible injustice of Talha’s extradition and detention

Syed Talha Ahsan
Talha Ahsan

originally by: The New Statesman
published: 21 February 2013

In theory, what has happened to Talha Ahsan should not be possible. It might come as a surprise to many to learn that Ahsan, a British national judged to be “extremely vulnerable” by a psychiatrist, is currently in pre-trial detention in a so-called “super-maximum security” prison in the United States.  

Ahsan is being held at Connecticut supermax prison, which is the subject of a recent documentary by Yale Law School entitled The Worst of the Worst.

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