In a County Outside Texas, an Inmate Suffers Medical Neglect and Dies in Horrendous Conditions Continued

A spokesperson for Fulton County Jail in Georgia acknowledged that, clearly, a number of failures led to the inmate’s tragic death. The chief jailer resigned as well as the assistant chief jailer in the criminal investigation division, and the assistant chief jailer of housing.

The Chief Medical Examiner for Tarrant County, Texas, Dr. Kendall Von Crowns, reviewed and analyzed the independent report. He stated that determining the cause of death based on that report was too difficult. Without further information, he felt that the best he could do was to agree with the original report, which listed “undetermined” as the cause of death.

Without viewing the toxicology report, photographs of the inmate’s body, or the original autopsy, Dr. Von Crowns said it appears that dehydration and malnutrition was most likely the cause of death.

Lice infestations, he said, can result in cellulitis, impetigo, or other bacterial infections caused by scratching the skin. However, lice would not have been the inmate’s cause of death, he said. Also, there was no mention of a massive skin infection. Death from malnutrition and dehydration seemed to be an obvious cause of death.

The Tarrant County Medical Examiner did agree with the statement in the independent review saying the inmate’s schizophrenia may have been a contributing factor to his death.

See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, and Part 10.

Helping inmates now or previously detained in a municipal or county jail in Texas is one of the purposes of this website. There is never any intention of suggesting that any individual or organization was engaged in misdeeds.

–Guest Contributor