Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 4, 2006 23:40:35 GMT -5
State denies violating court order
The daughter of executed Tennessee inmate Sedley Alley wants a federal judge to hold the state medical examiner in contempt, alleging he mistreated her father's body immediately after his death.
Despite a federal court order barring the state from performing an autopsy on the condemned man's body, needle wounds were found in his neck, eyes and groin area two days after the execution, according to a court motion filed by April McIntyre, Alley's daughter.
The needle pricks were not related to the lethal injection process that killed him, according to a member of his defense team.
Instead, they were the type of needle wounds one would find on a body examined as part of "post-mortem procedures," said Nashville attorney Ted Carey, who witnessed the execution for the defense and viewed the body at a mortuary Friday. Carey, who is also a physician, filed a declaration with the court outlining his findings.
Alley, 50, was executed just after 2 a.m. Wednesday for the rape and murder 21 years ago of a young Marine stationed at a Memphis-area naval air station.
The legal argument over whether his body underwent autopsy procedures will have to proceed without it: Alley was cremated Friday.
An attorney for Dr. Bruce Levy, the medical examiner for the state and Metro, said the doctor did not violate the judge's order.
A medical examiner simply withdrew some fluids from Alley's body but did not perform an autopsy, a routine practice, Nashville attorney Glenn Funk said.
Furthermore, Funk said, the medical examiner's staff did not know about the judge's late-night order. The order was issued at 11 p.m. Tuesday, but staffers at Levy's office did not see a copy until the next morning around 7, Funk said.
Alley sued to prevent the autopsy based on religious beliefs, saying he strongly objected to the cutting and desecration of his body, according to an affidavit he signed and filed with the court.
U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger blocked Levy from performing an autopsy in an order issued just hours before Alley was executed.
A hearing is scheduled for July 28 before Trauger on the civil and
criminal contempt charges filed against Levy and Ricky Bell, warden at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in west Nashville, which houses Tennessee's death row.
(source: Hendersonville Star News, July 3)
The daughter of executed Tennessee inmate Sedley Alley wants a federal judge to hold the state medical examiner in contempt, alleging he mistreated her father's body immediately after his death.
Despite a federal court order barring the state from performing an autopsy on the condemned man's body, needle wounds were found in his neck, eyes and groin area two days after the execution, according to a court motion filed by April McIntyre, Alley's daughter.
The needle pricks were not related to the lethal injection process that killed him, according to a member of his defense team.
Instead, they were the type of needle wounds one would find on a body examined as part of "post-mortem procedures," said Nashville attorney Ted Carey, who witnessed the execution for the defense and viewed the body at a mortuary Friday. Carey, who is also a physician, filed a declaration with the court outlining his findings.
Alley, 50, was executed just after 2 a.m. Wednesday for the rape and murder 21 years ago of a young Marine stationed at a Memphis-area naval air station.
The legal argument over whether his body underwent autopsy procedures will have to proceed without it: Alley was cremated Friday.
An attorney for Dr. Bruce Levy, the medical examiner for the state and Metro, said the doctor did not violate the judge's order.
A medical examiner simply withdrew some fluids from Alley's body but did not perform an autopsy, a routine practice, Nashville attorney Glenn Funk said.
Furthermore, Funk said, the medical examiner's staff did not know about the judge's late-night order. The order was issued at 11 p.m. Tuesday, but staffers at Levy's office did not see a copy until the next morning around 7, Funk said.
Alley sued to prevent the autopsy based on religious beliefs, saying he strongly objected to the cutting and desecration of his body, according to an affidavit he signed and filed with the court.
U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger blocked Levy from performing an autopsy in an order issued just hours before Alley was executed.
A hearing is scheduled for July 28 before Trauger on the civil and
criminal contempt charges filed against Levy and Ricky Bell, warden at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in west Nashville, which houses Tennessee's death row.
(source: Hendersonville Star News, July 3)