‘The heart was missing from the chest cavity’: Alabama prison agency sued after inmate died and ‘severely decomposed,’ leaving family ‘no choice’ other than ‘closed casket funeral’

Ventress Correctional Facility, Brandon Dotson

Ventress Correctional Facility, as shown in a local news report from 2019 (WDHN/screengrab), Brandon Dotson (right) in a photo from the lawsuit.

A 43-year-old Alabama inmate serving a 99-year burglary sentence died in prison the “same day he was considered for parole release” and now his family, which “had no choice but to hold a closed casket funeral service,” has no idea where his heart is, a federal lawsuit against the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) alleged.

Brandon Clay Dotson wasn’t sentenced to die at the Ventress Correctional Facility in Clayton, but the sentence was “tantamount to a death sentence,” said the lawsuit filed by Dotson’s daughter Audrey Marie Dotson and his mother Audrey South.

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