By Associated Press
Montgomery AL – State Attorney General Troy King and Alabama's district attorneys have joined the state Department of Corrections in requesting that a public records lawsuit brought by the family of former inmate Farron Barksdale be dismissed.
Barksdale's mother, Mary Barksdale, filed suit in September after the Department of Corrections refused to release records about her son's August death. Farron Barksdale pleaded guilty to killing two Athens police officers in 2004 and died shortly after entering state prison custody this summer.
Motions seeking dismissal of the suit contend the prison system documents requested are not public record under Alabama law.
Corrections spokesman Brian Corbett said in a statement Monday that the documents sought by Mary Barksdale "specifically concern security or impact public safety and are exempt from disclosure."
"Our Department has cooperated, is cooperating, and will continue to cooperate in the investigation into the death of Farron Barksdale," said Corrections Commissioner Richard Allen in the statement. "The Department, however, will not do anything to compromise the integrity of the investigation and will not step outside the boundaries of the law."
Huntsville attorney Jake Watson filed the suit along with the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights on behalf of Mary Barksdale and six inmates who say they were injured while being held at Donaldson Correctional Facility.
Watson has said that Mary Barksdale deserves to know what happened to her son.
Farron Barksdale suffered from mental illness and was found unresponsive in his cell at Kilby prison near Montgomery on Aug. 11, when prison officials said he had a high fever, symptoms of systemic infection and marks or bruises on his pelvis.
Never regaining consciousness, he died Aug. 20 at a Montgomery hospital after family members agreed that he be taken off life support.
Autopsy results released by the Department of Corrections concluded that Barksdale died from a type of pneumonia.