In Memory Of:Farron Barksdale, 32, of Athens Texas

September 23, 2009 Huntsville Times
A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the mother of an inmate who died just 12 days after entering prison has been settled with the state Department of Corrections, her lawyers said Tuesday. Though the terms were not disclosed, the settlement was also confirmed by state prison Commissioner Richard Allen. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Montgomery on behalf of Mary Barksdale, the mother of Farron Barksdale, 32, of Athens, who died Aug. 20, 2007, after he was found unconscious in his Kilby Prison cell. Barksdale, who pleaded guilty to capital murder in the shooting death of two Athens police officers, had been transferred to the prison just three days earlier to begin serving a sentence of life without parole. Mary Barksdale, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, was represented by Sarah Geraghty, an attorney for the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights, and Huntsville attorney Jake Watson. Geraghty and Watson confirmed that Mary Barksdale was awarded a cash settlement, but they would not disclose the amount. The defendants in the suit were former Kilby Warden Arnold Hold, Drs. Michael Robbins and Joseph McGinn, two unnamed correctional officers, an unnamed medical worker and Vienna, Va., based MHM Correctional Services. MHM provides mental health services for the Department of Corrections. The suit alleged that Barksdale, who suffered from schizophrenia, died because of "the deliberate indifference, medical neglect and negligence" of the prison staff. "Mr. Barksdale was medicated with an unusually large dose of psychotropic medications that made his body unable to withstand high temperatures, confined to an isolation cell with a medically dangerous degree of heat and left there without adequate monitoring," the complaint said. "He fell into a coma and died." The complaint said Barksdale was not placed in Kilby's mental health unit, which is air-conditioned. On the day he was found unresponsive in his cell, the temperature in Montgomery was 106 degrees. Kilby is located just east of Montgomery. On that day, the complaint said, correctional officers found Barksdale in a coma, "snoring and moaning," with a temperature of 103.1 degrees. He was taken to the hospital but never regained consciousness after eight days. An autopsy said he died of pneumonia and complications from hypothermia and a blood-clotting problem, and that bruises on his upper body and hip did not contribute to his death. A state prison inmate later wrote in an Oct. 24, 2008, letter to Montgomery County Circuit Judge Eugene Reese that Barksdale was severely beaten by four prison guards. Allen asked the Alabama Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Corrections' Department of Investigations and Intelligence to reopen the investigation into Barksdale's death, but the results of that probe have never been released. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled Friday that the Department of Corrections must comply with the state's Open Records law and make records available on crimes committed within prisons. The Southern Center for Human Rights had sued over that issue. Despite the high court's 5-0 ruling, Allen said Friday state attorneys may ask for a rehearing.
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