Alabama still can’t find heart missing from prisoner’s body

JimmyBigSausage@lemm.ee to News@lemmy.world – 346 points –
Alabama still can't find heart missing from dead prisoner
al.com
49

Black Market organ harvesting.

What happens when we treat prisoners as a commodity.

Going by what's in the article, which, admittedly, isn't a lot, I think this is more a case of negligence. Anyone who dies in a prison is automatically autopsied. In order for a heart to be a viable transplant organ, the donor must be in a brain-dead state while still receiving life sustaining care. Even a few hours deceased is enough to make a heart non-viable (though apparently this is becoming less true!).

The much more likely answer, is either the autopsy surgeon or an autopsy tech threw the heart out in standard biohazard waste. Still disgusting, uncaring behavior, but until more evidence comes out, I'd say this isn't malicious.

All that said, the Alabama Correctional Prison System is terribly corrupt, so it wouldn't take a lot to change my mind.

The prisoner, Dotson, was “found dead” so who knows how many hours the body was lying there.

That pretty much precludes any use of the heart for transplant.

His relatives said they received the body in a decomposed state, but that could have been poor storage by the coroner before or after the autopsy, or the body might have been well hidden inside the prison so it was a long time before someone found it.

The article isn’t very clear on the condition of the body at each stage of handling.

What’s in the article is probably all the information that the reporter could get out of the prison authority, the state Department of Forensic Sciences, and the University.

What is this??? Logic on social media??? No, let’s assume the craziest worst case scenario first!!!

Maybe they thought he was a vampire and had to stab it with a pencil and then forgot to put it back. There, happy?

I can see it being negligence if an autopsy was performed.

I didn't know hearts don't stay viable long so I think your answer is more likely than mine.

But an organ harvesting operation of prisoners wouldn't surprise me.

It sounds like the family is claiming it was going to be used for medical research, not transplantation.

That's still organ harvesting and trafficking.

i mean, at least declare it; "guilty; you shall be used for parts by the highest bidder!"

its not like we care about rehabilitating any of these people

the director of the Alabama Department of Forensice Sciences, Angelo Della Manna, said he hadn’t reviewed Dotson’s particular case file and couldn’t answer any questions about Dotson specifically.

Which automatically makes me incredibly suspicious of the Alabama Department of Forensic Services. You're in a court of law, testifying about what your department did, and you can't even be bothered to look at the file? Yeah, sure.

I mean, that's a hilarious defense.

"Hey boss they need you in court tomorrow about this specific Dotson case."

" Don't say another word about it, I don't know shit and I'll tell em myself."

You'll see it with politicians all the time:

Reporter: Do you have any comment on [some scandal within your party]?

Politician: No, I haven't had time to [read the charge sheet | watch the video | whatever else].

Like the politician doesn't have a staff member whose entire job is tracking that stuff and giving the politician summaries of whatever's going on.

Desecration of human remains is a crime. Defund Alabama prisons.

As an Alabamian I came here to shit on Alabama. But you guys have already said everything I could say, and said it better. Probably because of my shitty Alabama education. Anyway, it makes me happy that someone is seeing what kind of nonsense goes on here.

Vampires? Organ thieves? So many other questions here.

Hmm. Do hearts normally go missing or is this something people sell?

Knowing is just impossabro

He was killed for not repaying drug debts. His body was stiffening when they checked him on his own bed. Seems pretty obvious the inmates stole his heart. Probably swept him off his feet, too.

Taking what the prison says at face value is naive at best.

I bet it's been used in some sort of carcosa, king in yellow, occult shit.

Of all the current things to worry about the last thing anybody should really be putting any effort into is a deceased person's missing internal organ that was removed after death.

It's horrible, yes, but so many horrible things play out every single day. This has no impact beyond psychological to the family involved. The guy is already dead. The heart won't bring him back. The heart won't stop them from suffering his loss.

I'm sure there are far more pressing things to investigate that impact the living and the masses. I know this is cruel and ignores emotion but if there was ever a reason to put the majority before the minority, this is one of those.

I assume you take this dumbfuck stance on ALL crimes and law enforcement right? The deed is done who cares anymore! Just living in the past!

I think law enforcement should mostly be based on a triage system. Biggest problems get the most resources. Minor problems get the backlog.

There are so many problems in prisons that actually need investigation that a single case of post-mortem organ harvesting is truly minor. This isn't a pattern of behavior, this is one single case. Prove me wrong.

Did you read the article? It's literally the whole case for the family. The heart missing can't be forgiven and forgotten because they see it as a larger pattern of misconduct that the Alabama Department of Corrections has shown for a long time.

It's absolutely worth investigating because it's another piece in the larger case against the prison system in Alabama. That's not even considering that it's just the fucking right thing to do because people's grief is important. There's a reason post-mortem ritual has been a part of human cultures since before we were homo sapiens.