COLUMBIA — On New Year’s Day of 1993, Mansa Musa Banshee was driving to work when an Irmo police officer pulled him over. The officer arrested him on charges of speeding, driving under suspension and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.

That September, Banshee went on trial before a federal jury in Columbia and was found not guilty. But, according to his advocates, instead of being able to carry on with his life in the community, he has been locked up in state prison for the past 32 years.

Back in 1974, after Banshee returned from fighting in the Vietnam War with the Army, he was convicted of murder for fatally shooting an Upstate cab driver. He had been out on parole for the third time during his arrest in Irmo, and he went back before the S.C. Board of Paroles and Pardons .

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