Serious allegations
An inmate’s claims in the Barksdale death merit full disclosure
In any potential criminal case where old questions linger and new ones arise, the need for full disclosure must inevitably override other considerations. That’s the status of the lawsuit over the 2007 prison death of Farron Barksdale, the confessed killer of two Athens police officers in 2004.
The new questions arise because a state prison inmate has written Montgomery County Circuit Judge Gene Reese alleging that Barksdale, who had been at the Kilby Correctional Center only three days before he died, was beaten by four prison guards and that the beating may have contributed to his death.
The inmate, now serving time at another state prison, has not been identified in news articles. Because the allegations have not previously been made public, it’s difficult to assess how credible they are (prisons don’t always nurture the truth) or whether the state has been aware of them.
In fact, it’s hard to determine what the state has been aware of. Corrections officials are in court right now trying to stop the court-ordered release of some documents in the Barksdale death. But their arguments grow weaker daily. They had said previously the release would jeopardize a continuing criminal investigation. But that investigation is apparently over, ending week before last with the announcement that a Montgomery County grand jury had declined to indict anyone in the death.
So why not release the documents? Even Judge Reese said the material could be edited to protect security at the prison. Instead, the state’s argument has evolved – with concealment the only apparent motive. First, the state said it couldn’t release the material. Then it said it didn’t have to – or didn’t want to.
The pubic deserves to know everything the state knows about Barksdale’s death, about the bruises that were found on his body after his death, about any statements given to investigators and, now, about the inmate’s allegations against specific guards, three of whom he apparently named.
This public-records dispute may have arisen out of a lawsuit by Barksdale’s family, but it has far broader implications than the death of an admittedly unsympathetic figure. Safety in the prisons – the safety of inmates, visitors, guards, officials, repairmen and vendors – is indeed the public’s business.
Criminal activity
Further, the inmate’s accusations raise the specter of other criminal activity in the prisons – conspiracy, extortion and perjury, to name three. If Barksdale died of a criminal act, then anyone who knew of it and failed to report it could be charged as an accessory after the fact.
(Prison officials have claimed Barksdale’s injuries were not inflicted at Kilby. Limestone County officials insist he was not injured there before his transfer. So where was he injured?)
The Barksdale case illustrates the dangers of government in secret. That’s why The Times and other newspapers have filed briefs in favor of full disclosure.
If Farron Barksdale died of a deliberate act by one or more individuals, his death is no less a crime than his own cruel killing of the two Athens policemen. The law is the law, and if the people of Alabama are to determine if it is being equitably applied, they need far more information than the state, for whatever reason, has been willing to provide.
