Albert Woodfox, longest solitary confinement prisoner in U.S. history, dead at 75

Albert Woodfox, the onetime-Louisiana prisoner who spent a staggering 42 years in solitary confinement for the killing of a corrections officer, died this week at 75.

Woodfox, whose lawyer said he died of complications from COVID-19, had spent years in prison before he was implicated in the 1972 killing of 23-year-old prison guard Brent Miller. Woodfox denied the accusation.

He was released in 2016 after pleading no contest to a manslaughter charge related to the killing. He subsequently wrote and published a memoir, "Solitary," in 2019. 

While in solitary, Woodfox said he endured regular beatings, gassings and humiliating strip searches. He was known as one of the "Angola Three," alongside two other prisoners in long-term solitary confinement. 

He died in New Orleans on Thursday.