ABC News: After 36 Years in Solitary, Judge Says Conviction Should Be Overturned

ABC News: After 36 Years in Solitary, Judge Says Conviction Should Be Overturned: "After 36 Years in Solitary, Prisoner's Conviction Could Be Overturned
Judge Wants Ex-Black Panther's Murder Conviction Tossed, State Disagrees
By MEGAN CHUCHMACH
June 27, 2008

An ongoing legal battle in Louisiana could result in the overturning of a murder conviction that sent a prisoner there to solitary confinement for 36 years. A judge recently recommended that the murder conviction of former Black Panther Albert Woodfox, now 61, be overturned. The State of Louisiana disagrees.
albert
Ex-Black Panther Albert Woodfox, now 61, spent 36 years in solitary confinement. Now a judge is recommending his murder conviction be overturned.
(Courtesy State of Louisianna )

In her report, Magistrate Judge Christine Noland said that Woodfox's attorneys were ineffective and had been unable to cross-examine the state's lead witness 'regarding the promises made to him in exchange for his testimony because such information was still being suppressed by the State at the time of the 1973 trial.'

Earlier this week, the State of Louisiana filed an objection denying allegations that it suppressed information that would have discredited its lead witness, a convicted rapist imprisoned at the time, and that Woodfox's attorneys at his second trial in 1998 failed to r"