By Kelly Kazek
kelly@athensnews-courier.com
November 07, 2007 10:42 pm
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An autopsy that concludes state inmate Farron Barksdale died of pneumonia complicated by heat stroke says drug therapy likely contributed to the hyperthermia.
Barksdale, who died Aug. 20 in a Montgomery hospital 10 days after being found comatose in a cell at Kilby Correctional Facility, was also bruised, although medical examiner Kenneth Snell said he does not believe the bruises were related to the cause of death.
According to a copy of the autopsy report obtained by The News Courier, Barksdale had these drugs in his system at the time of the autopsy: propofol, a short-acting intravenous anesthetic agent used in intensive care units, clomipramine, a tricyclic antidepressant with the brand name Anafranil; sertraline, an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor class with the brand name Zoloft or Lustral; and amitriptyline, a tricyclic antidepressant with the brand name Elavil.
Before he was arrested for the shooting deaths of two Athens Police officers on Jan. 2, 2004, Barksdale had been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic and involuntarily committed on several occasions. According to three sources, a psychiatrist took Barksdale off antipsychotic drugs and prescribed antidepressants after a lengthy evaluation at Taylor Hardin Secure Medical Facility late in 2006.
During a 100-day stay at Taylor Hardin, physicians determined Barksdale was not paranoid schizophrenic, but that his problems were drug- and alcohol-induced, said Limestone County District Attorney Kristi Valls, who prosecuted Barksdale for capital murder in a mini trial here after he agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life without parole.
Barksdale was convicted and sentenced in August in Limestone County Circuit Court. After more than three years in Limestone County Jail, he was transferred Aug. 8 to Kilby. He was found in his cell Aug. 11 and taken to Baptist Medical Center South.
While his client was comatose, Huntsville attorney Jake Watson won a court order on behalf of Barksdale’s family to have a physician review his care and, if he died, attend an autopsy.
That physician told Watson that photos taken during the autopsy showed bruising on Barksdale’s pelvic region.
Conflicting sentences in Snell’s autopsy report led the Department of Corrections to issue a statement claiming Snell found no evidence of trauma. On page 2 of the autopsy report, Snell writes: “Comment: No significant external or internal trauma identified. The exact etiology of the hyperthermia is uncertain but most likely is related to drug therapy.”
On page 3 of the report, he states: “No evidence of external or internal trauma is identified.”
On Tuesday, Snell told the Associated Press that the word “significant” was important because the bruising was there but did not contribute to Barksdale’s death. Snell said some bruising was from medical treatment in the hospital and the health problems (Snell also found a clotting disorder contributed to Barksdale’s death). The bruises in question, those around his hips, were older, he said.
Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely has said previously that when Barksdale was transported to Kilby, he underwent a strip search and examination. He was not bruised on Aug. 8, Blakely said.
The bruises were visible when Barksdale was hospitalized on Aug. 11, according to sources.
In Snell’s report, he describes numerous small hemorrhages in various areas but in the hip area, he describes: “On the right anterior and lateral hip is a 7-by-5 inch area” that is partially blue and purple and partially yellow-green.
Watson said despite the fact that the autopsy found Barksdale died of natural causes he still wants access to prison records.
In September, Watson filed a suit, along with the Southern Center for Human Rights, on behalf of Barksdale’s mother Mary, who lives in Athens, seeking incident reports and other prison documents in Barksdale’s case. The suit names DOC Commissioner Richard Allen as defendant.
The DOC filed a motion in October to dismiss, largely on the grounds that state agencies are immune from lawsuits and that opening documents in a criminal investigation to the public could hamper law enforcement.
On Oct. 31, Alabama Attorney General Troy King filed a seven-page brief and several supporting documents in Montgomery County Circuit Court. The brief supports Allen’s motion to dismiss, saying, “The attorney general, as the chief law enforcement officer of the state, is very interested in preserving the confidentiality of investigative files of law enforcement agencies” and that a decision in favor of making the records public “could open the door for the compromising of criminal investigations…”
Watson said conflicting accounts by DOC officials — most recently the report that no trauma was found on Barksdale’s body — raise questions that can only be answered by reviewing documents in the case.
“This just makes me believe more and more that they need to make their investigation open to the public,” Watson said Wednesday. “If they have nothing to hide, then show us their entire investigation. It raises questions about what other unintentional mistakes they may have made — or whether they were intentional.”
Watson said he also learned Barksdale was packed in ice when he left the prison for the hospital, presumably to treat the hyperthermia.
Alabama prisons are not air conditioned and Barksdale arrived at the prison during a heat wave when temperatures were above 100 degrees outdoors. Large fans are used to cool inmates, a DOC official said previously.
The autopsy report said that when he arrived at the hospital, Barksdale was suffering from hyperthermia, bronchopneumonia, coagulopathy (a blood-clotting disorder), upper gastrointestinal bleeding, a breakdown of muscle tissues and an altered mental state.
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