LUMPENPROLETARIAT—On 17 APR 2015, Democracy Now! provided us with a political prisoner update on, former political prisoner and Black Panther, Herman Wallace, a former member of the Angola Three.  New Orleans-based artist Jackie Sumell collaborated with Herman Wallace on a project to draw attention to the plight of prisoners in solitary confinement.  Sumell asked Herman Wallace, “What sort of house does a man who has lived in a 6-foot-by-9-foot cell for over 30 years dream of?”  His response is featured in a new exhibit at the Brooklyn Public Library entitled “#76759: Featuring the House That Herman Built.”

Also, former prosecutor Marty Stroud has apologised to Glenn Ford, an exonerated Louisiana man, who was wrongfully imprisoned for 30 years.  Democracy Now! has reported:  “Stroud recently wrote a three-page letter in the Shreveport Times calling on the state to stop refusing to compensate Ford [for medical care], who now has stage 4 lung cancer.”

-Messina

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DEMOCRACY NOW!—(17 APR 2015) In Louisiana, former prosecutor Marty Stroud has met with former death row prisoner Glenn Ford to apologize to him for wrongfully charging him with murder. After 30 years in prison, Ford was released from death row last year after the state admitted new evidence proves he was not the killer. Stroud recently wrote a three-page letter in the Shreveport Times calling on the state to stop refusing to compensate Ford, who now has stage 4 lung cancer. We get an update on Ford’s case from his friend Jackie Sumell.

Learn more at DEMOCRACY NOW!.

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THE ATLANTIC—(14 MAR 2014) Anywhere he wanted to go, the jubilant defense attorneys told a hungry Glenn Ford late Tuesday afternoon as they left the television cameras behind, piled into their car, and left the yawning grounds of Louisiana’s notorious Angola prison. Ford was hungry, very hungry, because from the moment he had learned that he would be released from death row—after serving 30 years there for a murder he did not commit—he had decided that he would not eat another morsel of prison food.

On their way back to New Orleans, driving on State Highway 61, there was this one restaurant that Ford had wanted to try, but it had closed for the day. And then the relieved lawyers and dazed client passed a gas station that served Church’s fried chicken and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Doughnuts? Ford pondered the possibility until the car was about a mile further down the road. “Look, if you want doughnuts we’ll get you doughnuts,” even if they come from a gas station, attorney Gary Clements told his longtime client.

Learn more at THE ATLANTIC.

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DEMOCRACY NOW!—(17 APR 2015) We speak with New Orleans-based artist Jackie Sumell about her collaboration with former prisoner and Black Panther, Herman Wallace. As Democracy Now! reported in October of 2013, Wallace died just days after his conviction was overturned and he was released from nearly 42 years in solitary confinement. He was a member of the Angola 3, who was convicted for the 1972 murder of a prison guard, but long maintained his innocence and said they were framed for their political activism. The project Wallace worked on with Sumell began when she asked him, “What sort of house does a man who has lived in a 6-foot-by-9-foot cell for over 30 years dream of?” You can see his response in the exhibit called “#76759: Featuring the House That Herman Built.” The exhibit opened this week at the Brooklyn Public Library’s main branch and includes a life-sized replica of Wallace’s prison cell, selections from his correspondence with Sumell, books from his reading list, and, in the library’s main lobby, a model of the dream house that he designed.

Learn more at DEMOCRACY NOW!.

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[last updated 17 APR 2015 13:44 CDT]