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Former Black Panther granted trial to contest 22 years in solitary confinement
Source: The Guardian
Former Black Panther granted trial to contest 22 years in solitary confinement
Russell ‘Maroon’ Shoatz, who was convicted in 1970 for first-degree
murder, to argue against his long-term isolation after Albert Woodfox
was freed last month
Renée Feltz
Tuesday 15 March 2016 22.06 GMT
After more than four decades behind bars, a former Black Panther has won a major breakthrough in challenging his long-term solitary confinement.
The development comes after another former Black Panther, Albert Woodfox, was freed last month after he was held for a record 43 years in isolation at Louisiana’s state penitentiary.
Woodfox’s treatment is the focus of a pending civil lawsuit that argues his confinement was cruel and unusual. Around the same time Woodfox was released in February, US magistrate judge Cynthia Reed Eddy was debating whether to grant a jury trial for a similar lawsuit filed by Russell “Maroon” Shoatz over his 22 consecutive years in solitary in SCI Greene in Pennsylvania. Now she has set a trial date for 11 July.
Shoatz was convicted in 1970 of first-degree murder for an attack on a Philadelphia police station during which one officer was killed and another wounded. He was 27 at the time, and a member of the Black Panther party. He later escaped twice from prison. While he was held in solitary, he had no major rule violations. But he was placed on a Restricted Release List that required the prison’s superintendent to recommend his release, which never happened.
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Russell ‘Maroon’ Shoatz, who was convicted in 1970 for first-degree
murder, to argue against his long-term isolation after Albert Woodfox
was freed last month
Renée Feltz
Tuesday 15 March 2016 22.06 GMT
After more than four decades behind bars, a former Black Panther has won a major breakthrough in challenging his long-term solitary confinement.
The development comes after another former Black Panther, Albert Woodfox, was freed last month after he was held for a record 43 years in isolation at Louisiana’s state penitentiary.
Woodfox’s treatment is the focus of a pending civil lawsuit that argues his confinement was cruel and unusual. Around the same time Woodfox was released in February, US magistrate judge Cynthia Reed Eddy was debating whether to grant a jury trial for a similar lawsuit filed by Russell “Maroon” Shoatz over his 22 consecutive years in solitary in SCI Greene in Pennsylvania. Now she has set a trial date for 11 July.
Shoatz was convicted in 1970 of first-degree murder for an attack on a Philadelphia police station during which one officer was killed and another wounded. He was 27 at the time, and a member of the Black Panther party. He later escaped twice from prison. While he was held in solitary, he had no major rule violations. But he was placed on a Restricted Release List that required the prison’s superintendent to recommend his release, which never happened.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/15/russell-maroon-shoatz-prison-black-panther-solitary-confinement-trial
