Louisiana prisoner Albert Woodfox to be free after 43 years in solitary

Albert Woodfox, the last of three high-profile Louisiana prisoners known as the “Angola Three”, and who has spent more than four decades in solitary confinement, could walk free within days after a federal judge ordered state officials to release him immediately.

US District Judge James Brady, the judge overseeing the closely watched human rights case, said the 68-year-old former Black Panther Party prison leader should be granted immediate freedom and not be tried again in the death of a prison guard stabbed to death during prison upheavals in 1972.

Brady, who presided over the case from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, ordered Woodfox’s unconditional release in a strongly worded ruling.