Daughter of Dead Inmate Files Lawsuit
The daughter of a state prison inmate who was brutally murdered in his Forest County cell last year has filed a lawsuit saying the state Department of Corrections’ mishandling of mentally ill inmates is what caused her father’s death.
63-year-old Frederick Kirkland was wheelchair bound when he was placed in cell with 26-year-old Elwood Braswell at SCI-Forest in August of last year. Just hours later Braswell beat and suffocated Kirkland and smeared him with feces. Braswell was found guilty but mentally ill of first-degree murder this past August and sentenced to life in prison.
Carla Davis-Vining of Pittsburgh is seeking damages based on the claim that prison officials violated her father’s Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.
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