Friday, October 24, 2003

High court keeps alive case of prisoners held in solitary

NEW ORLEANS: The nation's highest court refused Monday to kill a lawsuit brought by two prisoners and an ex-prisoner at the Louisiana State Penitentiary who spent decades in solitary confinement.

Without comment, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal filed by state officials who said they should be immune from a suit by the "Angola Three."

Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace said they have been subjected to cruel and inhuman punishment, in violation of the federal constitution, by their stay in solitary. Both were convicted of killing Angola guard Brent Miller in April 1972 and have spent more than three decades in solitary.

Also suing is Robert Wilkerson, who was released from prison in February 2001 after a state judge overturned his conviction for killing another inmate during a prison brawl in 1973. Wilkerson also had been held in solitary prior to his release. Wallace was moved into a more-restrictive form of solitary in 2002 after prison officials accused him of holding contraband in his cell.

The Supreme Court's refusal to hear an appeal from state officials, including Angola Warden Burl Cain and state corrections chief Richard Stalder, likely will clear the way for the suit to be tried, said Joe Cook, executive director of the Louisiana American Civil Liberties Union, which is spearheading the suit.

State officials did not return a call for comment.

Woodfox and Wallace are seeking to be released from solitary. Along with Wilkerson, who was confined in solitary when the suit was filed, they claim the prison board that reviews solitary confinement is a sham. The two remaining in prison also claim that they are being subjected to solitary confinement because they are politically active.

Prison officials have said that Woodfox and Wallace would be endangered if they were returned to the general inmate population. Wilkerson was held in solitary to avoid possible retaliation from other inmates, officials said. [Just Plain Rubbish.]

U.S. Magistrate Docia Dalby of Baton Rouge, who recommended in March 2002 that the three be allowed to sue, wrote that prisoners may claim solitary confinement is cruel and unusual only in "extraordinary circumstances." However, Dalby said a review of other cases found that three or four years is about the longest any prisoner stays in solitary confinement.

[The Geneva Convention only allows for 36 hours in solitary confinement and these men are not at war with the United States.]

By ALAN SAYRE Edited by Gregory Kable posted 24 October 03

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