FILE - In this May 9, 2011 file photo, the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola is seen in West Feliciana Parish, La. U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson expressed frustration as he questioned why prison... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this May 9, 2011 file photo, the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola is seen in West Feliciana Parish, La. U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson expressed frustration as he questioned why prison officials won't spend roughly $1 million to install air conditioning on death row, since the state... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this May 9, 2011 file photo, the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola is seen in West Feliciana Parish, La. U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson expressed frustration as he questioned why prison officials won't spend roughly $1 million to install air conditioning on death row, since the state... (Associated Press) FILE - In this May 9, 2011 file photo, the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola is seen in West Feliciana Parish, La. U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson expressed frustration as he questioned why prison... (Associated Press) 
 
 BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The state of Louisiana's refusal to install air conditioning on death row has already cost taxpayers more than $1 million in legal bills, according to records obtained by The Associated Press. 
 
 The state could spend roughly the same money — and possibly much less — on an air conditioning system that would satisfy a federal judge's order to protect death-row inmates from dangerous heat and humidity inside Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. 
 
 Instead, the corrections department and attorney general's office have accrued at least $1,067,000 in expenses fighting the 3-year-old lawsuit filed on behalf of three inmates with medical problems. This tally, based on state documents provided in response to the AP's public records requests, is the first public accounting of how much the case has cost taxpayers. 
 
 Most of the money has gone to private attorneys on opposing sides of the case, which the judge said could ultimately cost many more millions of dollars. 
 
 Expert witnesses and state contractors also have received tens of thousands of dollars. A list of expenses incurred by the prison itself adds up to more than $100,000, including an April 2014 payment of nearly $29,000 to a firm that was monitoring the heat and humidity every 15 minutes. 
 
 Airing his frustrations last month, U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson said the bill is "stunning," given the painful cuts lawmakers are making to balance the state budget. He wondered out loud whether the state's refusal to give up the fight is based on prison management concerns, politics or ideology. 
 
 "Is this really what the state wants to do?" he asked. "It just seems so unnecessary." 
 
 Jackson is scheduled to hear testimony Wednesday on whether the state's current heat remediation measures — one cold shower a day, ice chests in their cells and fans outside — are adequately protecting the plaintiffs as Louisiana's sweltering summer approaches. 
 
 A plaintiffs' expert has estimated it would cost about $225,000 — not including engineering fees or operating costs — to install air conditioning on death row's six tiers, which house dozens of inmates. 
 
 In 2014, an engineer hired by the state said nine air-conditioning units could adequately cool all eight tiers in the 10-year-old building that houses death row. An attorney for the state has said each unit would cost "several thousand dollars." 
 
 The state hasn't made public its total estimate. Spokeswomen for the corrections department and attorney general's office said they can't comment on pending litigation. 
 
 But the judge cited a state remediation plan in suggesting that the litigation is already more costly than the fix. 
 
 "The state itself indicated that they could install mechanical air, fix this problem, end this case, for about -- what was it? About a million dollars," Jackson said. 
 
 Louisiana's attorneys argue that the consequences would reverberate far beyond Angola's prison walls, spawning more lawsuits from prisoners across the country demanding air-conditioned cells. 
 
 "It would be a large burden on the prisons to have to set forth the costs to implement these measures," Grant Guillot, an attorney for the state, said during an appeals court hearing last year. 
 
 One such lawsuit — filed in 2014 in Texas — claims at least 20 prisoners have died of heat-related causes in that state since 1998. 
 
 Private attorneys from two law firms have billed the state more than $424,000. Most of that has gone to a Baton Rouge firm with a law partner — E. Wade Shows — who served as campaign treasurer to former Attorney General James "Buddy" Caldwell, who was voted out of office last year. 
 
 That firm — Shows, Cali & Walsh — has billed 2,420 hours at an average of about $140 per hour. The firm and Shows donated a combined $20,000 to Caldwell's campaigns since 2007. 
 
 The state also had to cover fees for the inmates' attorneys, from The Promise of Justice Initiative, because Jackson ruled in their favor. Inmates' attorneys received $490,000 through a settlement with Caldwell's successor, Attorney General Jeff Landry. 
 
 This case is "another example of elected officials taking a stand as long as the taxpayers pay for it," said Bill Quigley, a Loyola University law professor who runs the New Orleans school's poverty law center. "It's very sad, and it's a waste of money," Quigley said. 
 
 More than two years have passed since the judge ruled that Louisiana imposes unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment once the heat index exceeds 88 degrees. 
 
 The heat index routinely crosses that threshold on death row, and occasionally exceeds 100 degrees. Plaintiff James Magee, confined 23 hours a day in his cell, said it's like a "sauna" in the morning and an "oven" in the afternoon. 
 
 Last year, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals partially upheld Jackson's decision, but said any remedy should be limited to the three plaintiffs, not all 85 inmates on death row, and invited the state to provide relief without installing air conditioning. ||||| BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A federal judge is set to hear testimony on whether Louisiana prison officials are adequately protecting death-row inmates from dangerous heat and humidity levels in a facility where the state refuses to install air conditioning. 
 
 Three death-row inmates who sued three years ago over the sweltering conditions in their cells at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola are expected to attend Wednesday's hearing in U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson's courtroom. 
 
 Jackson ruled more than two years ago that Louisiana imposes unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment once the heat index on death row exceeds 88 degrees. 
 
 The state insists its current heat remediation measures — cold showers, ice chests and fans — are adequately protecting the plaintiffs. 
 
 The inmates' attorneys disagree and are urging Jackson to reconsider air conditioning as a requirement. ||||| A 71-year-old Louisiana prisoner who spent 41 years in solitary confinement and is now dying of cancer was released late Tuesday from prison, his attorneys said. 
 
 Late Tuesday, U.S. District Chief Judge Brian Jackson in Baton Rouge denied the state's motion seeking to block his earlier order overturning Herman Wallace's 1974 murder conviction in the death of Angola prison guard Brent Miller. 
 
 Jackson had also ordered a new trial because women were unconstitutionally excluded from the grand jury that indicted Wallace in the guard's death. And, he ordered him immediately released. 
 
 Wallace and two other inmates convicted in the 23-year-old guard's slaying came to be known as the "Angola 3." 
 
 Wallace, of New Orleans, was serving a 50-year armed robbery sentence when Miller was fatally stabbed in 1972. Wallace and the two others convicted in Miller's death were moved to isolation at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. In 2009, Wallace was moved to "closed-cell restriction" at Hunt Correctional in St. Gabriel and recently was taken to the prison's hospital unit. 
 
 Amnesty International USA last year delivered a petition to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's office, containing 65,000 signatures from people around the world who called the men's solitary confinement inhuman and degrading. 
 
 The group's executive director, Steven W. Hawkins, welcomed the court's ruling involving Wallace. "Tragically, this step toward justice has come as Herman is dying from cancer with only days or hours left to live," he said in a statement. "No ruling can erase the cruel, inhuman and degrading prison conditions he endured for more than 41 years." 
 
 Wallace's attorneys said the freed prisoner left a correctional center in St. Gabriel by ambulance Tuesday evening and was expected to go to LSU Interim Hospital in New Orleans for treatment of advanced terminal liver cancer. 
 
 "Tonight, Herman Wallace has left the walls of Louisiana prisons and will be able to receive the medical care that his advanced liver cancer requires," his legal team said in a statement. 
 
 Earlier Tuesday, Jackson overturned Wallace's 1974 murder conviction in Miller's death. 
 
 "The record in this case makes clear that Mr. Wallace's grand jury was improperly chosen in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of `the equal protection of the laws' ... and that the Louisiana courts, when presented with the opportunity to correct this error, failed to do so," Jackson wrote. 
 
 He added, "Our Constitution requires this result even where, as here, it means overturning Mr. Wallace's conviction nearly forty years after it was entered." 
 
 George Kendall, one of Wallace's attorneys, told The Associated Press in an earlier telephone interview the decision gives his client "some measure of justice after a lifetime of injustice," but his response was tempered by the grim outlook for Wallace's health. 
 
 "He's pleased," Kendall said of Wallace's reaction after hearing of Tuesday's ruling, "but he's quite ill." 
 
 Wallace, whose birthday is Oct. 13, has been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. Kendall said he "ceased receiving treatment a couple of weeks ago." 
 
 Kendall said the state had filed notice it would appeal Jackson's ruling. A telephone message left with East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar C. Moore III's office was not immediately returned. The state Department of Public Safety and Corrections referred all questions to Moore's office. 
 
 Kendall said his client has asked that, after his demise, they continue to press the lawsuit challenging Wallace's "unconstitutional confinement in solitary confinement for four decades." 
 
 "It is Mr. Wallace's hope that this litigation will help ensure that others, including his lifelong friend and fellow `Angola 3' member, Albert Woodfox, do not continue to suffer such cruel and unusual confinement even after Mr. Wallace is gone," his legal team said in a written statement. 
 
 Kendall said Woodfox won full habeas relief last year but the state has appealed that as well. The case is pending before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 
 
 In 2010, Woodfox was moved to the David Wade Correctional Center in Homer, where he remains in custody. 
 
 Woodfox and Wallace have continued to deny involvement in Miller's killing and say they were targeted because they helped establish a prison chapter of the Black Panther Party at the Angola prison in 1971, set up demonstrations and organized strikes for better conditions in the prison. 
 
 The third man, Robert King, was released after 29 years in solitary confinement. King, convicted of killing a fellow inmate in 1973, was released in 2001 after his conviction was reversed and he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of conspiracy to commit murder.
– The state of Louisiana's refusal to install air conditioning on death row has already cost taxpayers at least $1,067,000 in expenses fighting a lawsuit filed on behalf of three inmates with medical problems, according to records obtained by the AP. Meanwhile the state could spend roughly the same money—and possibly much less—on an AC system that would satisfy a federal judge's order to protect death row inmates from dangerous heat and humidity inside Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. This tally, based on state documents provided in response to the AP's public records requests, is the first public accounting of how much the case has cost taxpayers. Most of the money has gone to private attorneys on opposing sides of the case, which US District Judge Brian Jackson says could ultimately cost many more millions of dollars, and expert witnesses and state contractors also have received tens of thousands of dollars. More than two years have passed since Jackson ruled Louisiana imposes unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment once the heat index exceeds 88 degrees. The index routinely crosses that threshold on death row, occasionally exceeding 100 degrees; plaintiff James Magee said it's like a "sauna" in the morning and an "oven" in the afternoon. A plaintiffs' expert estimated it would cost about $225,000—sans engineering fees or operating costs—to install AC on death row's six tiers. A state engineer in 2014 said nine AC units could cool all eight tiers in the 10-year-old building that holds death row, with a state attorney saying each unit would cost "several thousand dollars." State attorneys argue installing AC would spawn more suits from prisoners nationwide demanding cooler cells. Jackson is set to hear testimony Wednesday on whether the state's current heat remediation measures—one cold shower a day, ice chests in the cells, and fans outside—are adequately protecting the plaintiffs as Louisiana's sweltering summer approaches.