Key takeaways:
- Lawsuit filed by family of mentally ill man who died in Alabama jail alleges he was kept naked in a concrete cell and may have been placed in a freezer or other frigid environment
- Anthony Don Mitchell was brought to a hospital emergency room with a body temperature of 72 degrees (22 degrees Celsius) and was pronounced dead hours later
- Family’s attorney states Mitchell was “denied his basic human right to humane treatment” and that “his death was preventable and inexcusable”
A lawsuit filed by the family of a mentally ill man who died in an Alabama jail alleges that he was kept naked in a concrete cell and may have been placed in a freezer or other frigid environment.
Anthony Don Mitchell, 33, was brought to a hospital emergency room on Jan. 26 from the Walker County Jail, where he had been incarcerated for two weeks. According to the lawsuit, Mitchell had a body temperature of 72 degrees (22 degrees Celsius) when he arrived and was pronounced dead hours later.
The lawsuit, filed Monday by Mitchell’s mother in federal court, states that an emergency room doctor who tried unsuccessfully to revive Mitchell wrote, “I do believe hypothermia was the ultimate cause of his death.”
The family’s attorney, Benjamin Crump, said in a statement that Mitchell was “denied his basic human right to humane treatment,” and that “his death was preventable and inexcusable.”
The Walker County Sheriff’s Office has not yet responded to the lawsuit. The family is seeking unspecified damages and a jury trial.
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