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A
federal judge in Tennessee has granted a new civil trial in a lawsuit
over the 2010 death of an inmate at a prison in Nashville, citing the
emergence of new evidence.
The inmate, Charles Jason Toll, 33, died while being forcibly taken out of his cell by corrections officers at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution
in Nashville. The officers handcuffed and shackled Mr. Toll and carried
him to an outdoor yard at the prison, where he died. On a prison video,
Mr. Toll could be heard saying, “I can’t breathe,” at least 12 times.
Mr.
Toll’s case, and the practice of forcibly removing inmates from their
cells, a process known as cell extraction, was the subject of a front-page article in The New York Times in July.
In
a written opinion issued Monday, Judge John T. Nixon of Federal
District Court in Nashville said he was basing his ruling on a letter of
resignation written by a guard who was present the night Mr. Toll died.
The letter was uncovered by The Times, and excerpts from it were
published in the article.
“The
Court finds clear and convincing evidence that the resignation letter
is material, controlling and clearly would have produced a different
result if presented before the original judgment,” Judge Nixon wrote in
his opinion.
He
added, “Unbelievably, the resignation letter never surfaced until
Plaintiff read about it in a New York Times article nearly one year
after trial.”
The
guard, William Amonette, submitted his resignation letter after Mr.
Toll’s death. In it, he wrote that he had been treated badly at the
prison “ever since I asked questions in your office about the witnesses
in the Charles Toll case that were not spoken to by internal affairs.”
“I cannot work somewhere where asking questions or trying to do what is right is punished,” Mr. Amonette wrote.
Lawyers
for Mr. Toll’s mother, Jane Luna, who sued prison officials and
corrections officers involved in the cell extraction, said in filing
their motion for a new trial that the letter had not been turned over to them by the defendants during the discovery process.
Mr.
Toll’s death was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner, who said he
had died from suffocation as a result of pressure applied during the
forcible removal from his cell.
Jails
and prisons routinely use the tactic in response to threatening
behavior or disciplinary infractions. Mr. Toll, who was in prison on a
parole violation, was accused of splashing an “unknown liquid” at a
guard through a doorjamb.
A Prison Routine Turns Deadly
Charles Toll died as officers forcibly
carried him out of his cell in a Tennessee prison. The case raises
questions about when and how the procedure — known as a cell extraction —
should be used.
By Mona El-Naggar on Publish Date July 28, 2014.
Photo by Joe Buglewicz for The New York Times.
No
criminal charges were filed in his death. In 2013, a jury found that
three defendants in the lawsuit — James Horton, the captain who had led
the cell extraction; Gaelan Doss, a corrections officer; and Ricky J.
Bell, the prison’s warden at the time — had no liability in Mr. Toll’s
death.
Ms. Luna said on Tuesday that she was “just ecstatic” about the judge’s ruling.
“I just couldn’t believe it, because I fought so hard and it seemed like I finally got some justice,” she said.
David Weissman, the lead lawyer for Ms. Luna, said he was happy for her and that “this information came to light.”
“I think Judge Nixon did a courageous thing,” he said.
Mr. Weissman added that he thought the judge’s opinion was “airtight.”
“Given
the way the opinion is written, I would be surprised if they appealed
it,” he said, referring to the lawyers in the state attorney general’s
office who represented the defendants.
The attorney general’s office said on Tuesday that it was reviewing the judge’s order.
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