Person    | Male  Born 13/10/1941  Died 4/10/2013

Herman Wallace

Categories: Law, Race Issues, Tragedy

Countries: USA

In 1972 a prison guard was murdered in Angola Prison, Louisiana, USA, where Herman Wallace, Robert King, and Albert Woodfox were prisoners.  Wallace and Woodfox were convicted of the murder; King was said to be connected to the murder but was not charged.  King was convicted of a separate prison murder in 1973. All three were placed in solitary confinement and were forgotten until 1997 when a law student began investigating their case.  King was released after 29 years in solitary confinement.  Apart from a brief spell in 2008 in a maximum security dormitory, Wallace and Woodfox have been in solitary confinement since 1972.  The story is more complicated than this brief summary and it continues. The three men are known as "The Angola 3” and "Who is Herman Wallace" is/was the publicity campaign.

Herman Wallace was born in New Orleans but has spent most of his life in (a very small bit of) Angola Prison.

King was released in 2001.

Update 2013: Wallace had been diagnosed with cancer and was in a prison hospital.  On 1 October 2013 his conviction was overturned and he was released.  He died 3 days later.

Update 2016: A federal court ordered the immediate release of Woodfox but the legal wranglings continued until he was finally released in 2016.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Herman Wallace

Commemorated ati

Herman Wallace

This tile is about 4" square. It has been guerrilla-stuck to the wall just a...

Read More

Mosaic House, back - Angola Three

Angola Three: Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox, King Wilkerson

Read More

Mosaic House, front - Herman Wallace

Herman Wallace, 1941 - 2013

Read More

Other Subjects

Henry Fielding

Henry Fielding

Novelist, playwright. Born Somerset. Half-brother to Sir John Fielding. Lived in Bow Street and Essex Street. Play: The Miser. Novels: Joseph Andrews, Tom Jones. As magistrate he carried out a numb...

Person, Law, Literature, Theatre, Portugal

2 memorials
Councillor Leonard Pearl

Councillor Leonard Pearl

Leonard Pearl was born on 6 August 1908 in Mile End, London, one of at least nine children of David Pearl (1886-1919) and Rachel Pearl née Solomon (1868-1934). In the 1911 census he is shown as liv...

Person, Armed Forces, Law, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Sir Edwin Chadwick

Sir Edwin Chadwick

Born Lancashire but brought up in London. A friend of Jeremy Bentham, Bentham dying in his arms. Chadwick's major achievement was the 1842 publication of the Poor Law Commissioners' "Report on the ...

Person, Law, Politics & Administration, Social Welfare

1 memorial
Culloden - prisoners

Culloden - prisoners

3,470 prisoners were taken, men women and children, and it was decided that they should all be tried in England.  Seven ships carried them from Inverness on 10 June 1746.  Their destinies were vari...

Group, Law, Tragedy, Scotland

1 memorial
Robert Hillary King / Robert King Wilkerson

Robert Hillary King / Robert King Wilkerson

Robert Hillary King, also known as Robert King Wilkerson, is an American known as one of the Angola Three (King, Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox) former prisoners who were held at Louisiana State...

Person, Law, Race Issues, Tragedy

1 memorial