Saying she still is seeking answers in the death of her son while he was incarcerated at Kilby Correctional Facility, Mary Barksdale of Athens filed suit Monday in U.S. District Court in Montgomery against employees of the state Department of Corrections and two prison doctors.

The action, the latest in a series of suits filed on the Barksdale family’s behalf by Huntsville attorney Jake Watson and the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, claims a doctor administered medication known to cause heat intolerance while Farron Barksdale was being housed in an isolation cell in 100-plus-degree heat with no air-conditioning. The suit also accuses staff members of not providing adequate medical care.

“I think that it’s time that the proper people be held accountable for his death,” said Watson, who was Farron’s defense attorney. “It was avoidable. We hope that this may have some effect on how people are treated in prison, especially people who are vulnerable and mentally ill.”

Named as defendants in the suit are former Kilby warden Arnold Holt, Kilby physicians Dr. Michael Robbins and Dr. Joseph McGinn, two correctional facility officers who are not identified by name, and two prison medical and mental health services personnel who are not identified by name. Four of the defendants could not be named because attorneys have not had access to prison records, a SCHR spokeswoman explained.

Previous suits have been filed seeking access to Farron’s prison records, which DOC officials have responded to with motions of their own, stating prison records do not fall under the Open Records Act.

Farron Barksdale died in a Montgomery hospital at the age of 32 on Aug. 20, 11 days after he was found comatose in his cell at the Montgomery prison. He had been transferred to Kilby from Limestone County Jail on Aug. 8, three days before he was discovered in his cell. He had pleaded guilty in July to the 2004 shooting deaths of two Athens Police officers.

An autopsy concluded Farron Barksdale died of pneumonia complicated by heat stroke and that drug therapy likely contributed to the hyperthermia.

“My family and I have so many questions about how and why my son died,” Mary Barksdale stated in a press release about the suit. “Nearly every day, someone asks me what happened to him, and I still don’t have an answer.”  

Sarah Geraghty, an SCHR attorney representing the Barksdale family, said in the press release: “Upon arrival at Kilby, Mr. Barksdale was prescribed an unusually large dose of antipsychotic medications under the care of defendant, Dr. Joseph McGinn. Three of the medications he was given are known to create heat-intolerance in the body and are distributed with FDA warnings for caution when used in situations of extreme heat.

“Rather than taking care to ensure that Mr. Barksdale was placed in a climate-controlled environment, prison staff placed him alone in a blistering hot isolation cell. Even after he was found ‘snoring and moaning’ with his eyes rolling back in his head, staff failed to procure timely emergency medical care.”

Farron Barksdale, who previously had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, was in good physical health, Geraghty said.  

Following Barksdale’s hospitalization, Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely said the inmate had been checked by Kilby personnel before being accepted at the prison. At that time, Barksdale did not show any signs of physical problems, including bruising, Blakely said, but a physician who attended the autopsy as a representative of the Barksdale family told Watson that photos taken during the autopsy showed bruising on Barksdale’s pelvic region. The physician who performed the autopsy stated there was no bruising.

“Kilby’s mishandling of Farron Barksdale’s condition highlights the prison system’s shortcomings in appropriately managing people with mental illnesses,” Geraghty said. “His death was unnecessary and avoidable.”