Settlement from state ends lengthy inmate death suit

The state of Georgia has conceded defeat in a lawsuit filed by the mother of a mentally ill inmate who was beaten to death in his prison cell.

Johnnie Kitchen, whose son was killed six years ago, recently accepted the state attorney general’s office’s offer to allow a court-ordered judgment to be entered against prison officials. The state also agreed to pay Kitchen $500,000 and her attorneys’ fees.

Damon Lee, a mentally ill inmate, was killed at Autry State Prison in Pelham by Leon Murphy, who had a history of violence. The two men were improperly housed together, the suit said.

According to court records, a guard was supposed to keep watch on Lee’s floor, but was hanging out in the control room at the time of the killing and faked his required 30-minute checks.

The judgment offer is pending before U.S. District Judge Louis Sands in Albany. Sands already imposed contempt sanctions against the state for not turning over court-ordered documents.

Kitchen was represented for free by lawyers from the Atlanta firm King & Spalding, which will use the legal fees awarded by Sands for future pro-bono cases, said Courtland Reichman, a member of the legal team.

“The offer of judgment is an acknowledgement of the prison’s failure to properly safeguard the safety of its prisoners,” Reichman said. “It’s important to have transparency and accountability in the treatment of our prison population.”

In its offer of judgment, recently filed in federal court in Albany, the state does not admit “any wrongdoing, guilt or responsibility” on the part of prison officials.

But once Sands enters the judgment order, he will be ruling in favor of Kitchen and against the prison officials she sued, Reichman said.

In April, Sands found prison officials in contempt for violating court orders, including one that demanded the production of documents explaining why Lee and Murphy were put together in the same cell. If the case had gone to trial, Sands was going to take the highly unusual step of telling the jury that prison officials “deliberately violated” Lee’s right to be protected while imprisoned.