NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appeals court threw out the murder conviction of celebrated prison journalist Wilbert Rideau and ordered that he be set free if the state does not retry him in a reasonable
Friday, December 22nd 2000, 12:00 am
By: News On 6
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appeals court threw out the murder conviction of celebrated prison journalist Wilbert Rideau and ordered that he be set free if the state does not retry him in a reasonable amount of time.
Rideau's lawyers had argued that when Rideau was convicted in 1961 the jury selection process discriminated against blacks.
Rideau has been a resident of Louisiana State Prison at Angola for nearly 40 years. In 1976 he was named editor of The Angolite and transformed it from a mimeographed newsletter into a slick bimonthly magazine that has won a string of awards.
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