Mercy at the End of a Life

On Tuesday, a federal judge in Louisiana ordered the immediate release of Herman Wallace, a 71-year-old man who has spent more than 40 years in solitary confinement conditions for the murder of a prison guard. Mr. Wallace, who maintains his innocence, was wheeled out on a stretcher and taken to a local hospital because he is dying of advanced liver cancer. Prosecutors fought his release up to the moment of his departure.