The bodies of two men who died while incarcerated in Alabama’s prison system were missing their hearts or other organs when returned to their families, a US federal lawsuit alleges.
The family of Brandon Clay Dotson, who died at age 43 in a state prison on November 16, filed a federal lawsuit last month against the Alabama Department of Corrections and others saying his body was decomposing and his heart was missing when his remains were returned to his family.
In a court filing in the case last week, the daughter of Charles Edward Singleton, another deceased inmate, said her father’s body was missing all of his internal organs when it was returned in 2021.
Dotson’s family suspected foul play was involved in his death and conducted a second autopsy, filing the lawsuit to find out why his heart was removed and to have it returned to them.
Lauren Faraino, an attorney representing Dotson’s family, said via email that the experience of multiple families shows this is “absolutely part of a pattern”.
The Associated Press has sent an email seeking comment to the Alabama Department of Corrections.
“Defendants’ outrageous and inexcusable mishandling of the deceased’s body amounts to a reprehensible violation of human dignity and common decency,” the lawsuit states.
“Their appalling misconduct is nothing short of grave robbery and mutilation.”
Dotson’s family, while seeking information about what happened to his heart, discovered that other families had similar experiences, Faraino said.
Inside America’s death chambers
Court documents filed by Dotson’s family last week mention Singleton’s body, with his daughter Charlene Drake writing that her father’s body was brought to a funeral home “with no internal organs” after his death while incarcerated in 2021.
A federal judge held a hearing in the Dotson case last week, with Al.com reporting that the hearing provided no answers to the location of the heart.
The lawsuit filed by Dotson’s family contended that the heart might have been retained during a state autopsy with intent to give it to the medical school at the University of Alabama in Birmingham for research purposes.
Attorneys for the university said that was “bald speculation” and wrote in a court filing that the university did not perform the autopsy and never received any of Dotson’s organs.
