Police Shootings / Possible Abuse Threads [merged]

A man who died in the custody of Alabama’s corrections department was reportedly returned to his family without his organs, including his brain.

The news, which broke earlier this week, is the second recent case involving allegations of missing body parts from people in Alabama prisons. The US prison system has been widely criticized for its poor treatment of inmates.

Charles Edward Singleton, 74, who was housed at the state’s Hamilton Aged and Infirmed custody facility, died in November 2021, ABC 33/40 TV in Birmingham reported. Following Singleton’s death, the pathology department at the University of Alabama performed an autopsy on his body, according to a family member who spoke to the news station.

Singleton’s family requested his body be sent to a funeral home in Pell City, about two hours away. However, ABC 33/40 reported the funeral home’s director informed Singleton’s family that “it would be difficult to prepare his body for viewing” due to its “noticeable state of decomposition,” adding that there was “advanced skin slippage”.

Singleton’s family was informed that there were no organs in his body and that his brain had been removed, according to court filings reviewed by ABC 33/40. His family was also informed that organs are usually placed in a bag and put back inside bodies following autopsies.

Singleton’s family requested the University of Alabama return his organs but said they never received them, per the court filings.…..

In another similar case, the family of 43-year-old Brandon Clay Dotson, who was incarcerated and died in prison last November, have been struggling to determine the whereabouts of his heart.

Dotson’s mother and sister spent five days trying to claim his body after his death. When he was finally returned to them, they reported “bruising on the back of [his] neck and excessive swelling across his head”, according to Fox News.

A lawsuit filed by Dotson’s family and reviewed by Fox News said they hired their own pathologist to conduct an autopsy, as they were unsure of how Dotson died and never received a death certificate.

The lawsuit alleges Dotson’s heart was missing from his chest cavity. It added that it is “reasonable for plaintiff to believe that Dotson’s heart was removed for an improper purpose – namely, to be sent to UAB for the purpose of providing UABSOM [University of Alabama Heersink School of Medicine] students with a laboratory specimen to experiment on or study”.…….

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/11/alabama-prison-missing-organs?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other