Records access sought in case of inmate who severed penis

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee decide on Friday promised to rule rapidly on a request for public entry to information that element the remedy of a loss of life row prisoner who minimize off his penis whereas on suicide watch in October.

In a lawsuit filed in Chancery Court docket in Nashville, inmate Henry Hodges accused the state of offering insufficient medical and psychological well being care.

The inmate, who was sentenced to die for the 1990 killing of a phone repairman, additionally accused the state of merciless and strange punishment for his remedy upon his return to the jail from the hospital. That included retaining him bare and tied down with restraints on a skinny vinyl mattress over a concrete slab in a room the place the lights have been all the time on and there was no TV or radio.

Hodges was taken to Vanderbilt College Medical Heart, the place surgeons reattached his penis. After a number of weeks within the hospital, he was returned to the jail. Hodges ended up having to return to the hospital to have his penis surgically eliminated after necrosis set in, based on courtroom filings.

The state has requested for a courtroom order that will shield broad classes of paperwork from public disclosure, together with all video recordings of Hodges’ remedy whereas contained in the jail. The Related Press and the Nashville Banner are asking for these information to be open.

In courtroom on Friday, Assistant Legal professional Normal Dean Atyia argued that state legislation exempts sure classes of paperwork from public disclosure. These embrace investigative reviews, surveillance video, and different doc immediately associated to the safety of the jail.

The state has filed an affidavit by Ernest Lewis, the affiliate warden of safety on the Riverbend Most Safety Establishment, stating that public disclosure of the jail information “might pose a extreme safety threat to each inmates and employees.”

“Now we have to guard the general public,” Atyia stated. “Now we have to maintain jail transportation protected, hold jail officers protected, hold contraband out of the prisons.”

Nashville Banner lawyer Daniel Horwitz argued that the state’s assertions of a imprecise safety threat and the single-page affidavit from Lewis aren’t practically ample to justify retaining the information secret. Officers must display particular hurt that will come from launch of particular paperwork, moderately than broad, conclusory allegations.

“The state has considerations about prisoner transportation?” he stated. “Nice. Tell us the place that’s” within the movies.

Hodges’ lawyer, Kelley Henry, spoke in favor of disclosure, saying that movies of the jail inside are already public on the Tennessee Division of Correction’s personal YouTube channel.

“By placing it on the web, that reveals it doesn’t compromise security and safety,” she said.

As well as, the movies refute the state’s model of occasions about Hodges’ actions and his remedy by jail officers, she stated.

As well as, there’s an exception to the statute that protects video and different information deemed to implicate safety. They are often launched in a number of instances, together with the place they present doable prison exercise, stated Paul McAdoo, an lawyer with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, who’s representing The AP.

Henry, who has seen the movies in query, instructed in courtroom that Hodges’ remedy by jail officers could possibly be thought-about prison, though she didn’t go into element.

No official has been charged with a criminal offense.

Jail safety is essential, McAdoo argued, however it’s as much as the decide to evaluation the information the state needs to maintain personal and decide whether or not safety is prone to be compromised by them.

Hodges has stated he needs all of the information open to the general public, together with his medical information. Atyia stated they might not oppose the discharge of the medical information.

A Nashville jury convicted Hodges of homicide in 1992 and sentenced him to loss of life for the killing of the repairman, Ronald Bassett. Hodges additionally was sentenced to 40 years in jail for robbing Bassett.