Birmingham, AL – The mother of an Alabama inmate who died shortly after arriving in prison has received $750,000 to end her lawsuit against the state.
Mary Barksdale reached the settlement in a lawsuit she filed over the death of Farron Barksdale. He pleaded guilty to killing two north Alabama police officers five years ago.
Sarah Geraghty, an attorney for the woman, and Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Corbett confirmed the settlement on Wednesday.
The 32-year-old Barksdale was found unconscious in a cell at Kilby prison. An autopsy blamed natural causes, but his family maintained that prison officers left him in a cell without air conditioning in August 2007 and he died from excessive heat coupled with anti-psychotic medicine he was taking.
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