More than ever, the United States is quick to charge other nations with abuse of political prisoners, and to urge indictment of heads of state for doing harm to their own citizens.
Yet, the nation with the world’s highest incarceration rate and a justice system saturated with racism claims to have no political prisoners. In fact, scores have been held under cruel and unusual conditions for three and four decades. Blackagendareport.com
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For almost 40 years, Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace have been in solitary confinement at Louisiana’s infamous Angola State Prison, in what is thought to be the longest period of enforced solitude in America’s vast prison gulag. Commondreams.org
Under the conditions of solitary confinement, Woodfox and Wallace are restricted to their tiny cells for 23 hours a day. Three times a week, for an hour, they are allowed to exercise in an outdoor cage, if weather permits. Commondreams.org
Amnesty International says their treatment is “cruel and inhumane and a violation of the U.S.’s obligations under international law.” Commondreams.org
Albert Woodfox’s conviction has twice been overturned by lower courts on the basis of racial discrimination, prosecutorial misconduct, inadequate defense and suppression of evidence. Alethonews.wordpress.com
But the U.S. Court of Appeals decided that Woodfox’s fate was Louisiana’s business. Amnesty International demands only that the two elderly …
