Exonerated Angola Prisoner Dies After Nearly 30 Years in Solitary Confinement

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Exonerated Angola Prisoner Dies After Nearly 30 Years in Solitary Confinement

By MEGHAN KENEALLY 1 hour ago

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Exonerated Angola Prisoner Dies After Nearly 30 Years in Solitary Confinement (ABC News)

A man who was exonerated after spending nearly 30 years on death row in Louisiana died just over a year after his release.

The Angola 3: Decades of Solitary Confinement

Ford would have still been on death row if not for a confidential informant who told police in 2013 that someone else confessed to him about the murder that Ford was accused of committing.

Lawyer and friend William Most told ABC News Ford was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer several months after being released from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Most said that it quickly progressed to stage 4 and spread to his bones.

"He was a really inspirational person and ... I'd even heard that he inspired people that had no connection to him," Most told ABC News.

Ford was featured on ABC News’ ”Nightline” in April and agreed to meet with the prosecutor who put him behind bars, who wrote an open apology letter after Ford was exonerated. But Ford said at the time that he was unable to forgive him.

When he left prison in 2014, Most said Ford, then 64, only had $20 to his name. He had been living in a home provided by Resurrection after Exoneration, a group dedicated to helping prison exonerees.

Ford was involved in three lawsuits at the time of his death, two federal suits for which Most was representing him and one state suit. The federal suits were for compensation for his wrongful imprisonment and inadequate health treatment, and the state suit was a separate compensation suit.

Though he never married, the suit will continue and his children could stand to benefit from any rewards from the court, Most said.

Ford had several children, many of whom live in California, and more than 10 grandchildren at the time of his death. Most said Ford was able to visit California since being released from prison and one of his sons came to Louisiana to see him before he died.

Though they were located in the same prison and overlapped by several decades, Ford was not a member of the Angola Three, a group of three prisoners who were put in solitary confinement ranging from 29 to 43 years.

Ford spent 29 years, three months and five days in solitary confinement in the prison, Most said in a news release confirming Ford's death.

http://news.yahoo.com/exonerated-angola-prisoner-dies-nearly-30-years-solitary-181535405--abc-news-topstories.html

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Damn shame to spend that much time in solitary for a crime he didn't commit.