Article: Attorneys claim state withheld evidence in prison lawsuit

TSEA August 27, 2014 Comments Off on Article: Attorneys claim state withheld evidence in prison lawsuit
Article: Attorneys claim state withheld evidence in prison lawsuit

The Tennessean recently reported that the family of a prison inmate who died after being forcibly removed from his cell at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in 2010 has requested a new trial to consider additional evidence uncovered by a recent New York Times article.

Inmate Charles Toll, 33, died in 2010 while being forcibly removed from his cell by corrections officers at Riverbend prison. Last year, a jury found the defendants in a lawsuit brought by Mr. Toll’s mother, Jane Luna, not liable in the death.

The Times report from July included excerpts of a resignation letter from an officer involved in the cell extraction the night Mr. Toll died. The attorneys representing Jane Luna allege the state attorney general’s office committed fraud by not including the letter in the materials provided before the trial.

According to the Tennessean article, attorneys for the case claim TDOC “falsified training documents and ignored potential witnesses in investigating the death.”

Click here to read the complete Tennessean report

Click here to read the complete New York Times article.