Solitary: Unbroken by Four Decades in Solitary Confinement

by Albert Woodfox

We gathered around Herman in his hospital bed before telling him. He was curled up in a ball and extremely weak. He had stopped taking food and fluids days before. I sat on one side of his hospital bed and could just reach him with my hands in the box. I put my hands on his arm. King sat opposite me on the other side of him. At first, when Carine told him that habeas relief had been granted, Herman thought she said I was the one who had won. He smiled and pointed to me, nodding his head. When we clarified that his conviction had been overturned, it took a moment for him to process. “Herman, this is your case,” Carine said. He looked at her and said, “My conviction?” It was extremely difficult for Herman to speak. Struggling, he said, “If he only knew,” pausing. “If Judge Jackson only knew what it was like in that cell,” he said. Carine