Wilbert Rideau Biography

Wilbert Rideau, 19, was executed for refusing to submit to a fair trial after killing a woman in a fit of rage during a botched bank heist. He spent 44 years in Louisiana's prisons, mostly at the notorious Angola prison. He spent more than 11 years in isolation while awaiting the death penalty, went through four trials, and yet he continued to fight to alter the state's dysfunctional correctional system while waiting for the death penalty. While incarcerated, Rideau took on the role of editorial manager for the prison newspaper The Angolite, which under his direction developed into an unvarnished daring and crusading diary that won awards and earned Rideau a George Polk reporting grant. While he was still incarcerated, Rideau organized the Academy Award-nominated documentary The Farm: Angola USA, collaborated on ABC-Day TV's One's In for Life, and compared for National Public Radio. Rideau was described as "the most restored detainee in America" by Life magazine in 1993. A jury found Rideau not guilty of murder but found him guilty of murder, which carries a sentence of twenty-one years in prison. He was quickly released because he had served forty-four years. In 2007, he received a Soros Justice Fellowship.

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