Stephen Crawford killed someone at USP Hazelton, which is well-known for being the place where Whitey Bulger was killed.
On Friday, a federal prisoner in West Virginia was found guilty of fatally stabbing another prisoner.
A resident of USP Hazelton in the past was 44-year-old Stephen C. Crawford. In the US, Crawford was found guilty. District Court on accusations of assault with a deadly weapon, assault causing serious bodily harm, and voluntary manslaughter, according to a statement from the prosecution.
For the manslaughter charge, Crawford may spend up to 15 more years in federal prison; for each assault charge, he could spend up to 10 years.
According to court documents, Crawford repeatedly stabbed inmate Arvel Crawford with a weapon produced in the prison. These two have no connection.
According to Stephen Crawford’s lawyers, he acted in self-defense. Prosecutors countered that the victim was unarmed and did not represent a threat to the accused.
When Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger was assassinated in 2018, a few hours after being moved from another Florida jail to the federal penitentiary and thrown in the general population, USP Hazelton became well-known.
Alabama Inmate’s Disturbing Case: Lawsuit Alleges Return of Body Without Heart After Death in Prison
According to a federal lawsuit filed last Thursday, the family of an Alabama prisoner who passed away was taken aback when his body was delivered to them “severely decomposed,” meaning they “had no choice but to hold a closed casket funeral.”
In a lawsuit filed by daughter Audrey Marie Dotson and mother Audrey South, they claimed to have seen “bruising on the back of [his] neck and excessive swelling across his head” when the corpse of Brandon Dotson finally arrived, having spent five days trying to claim him after his Nov. 21 death.
Dotson’s mother and daughter are currently working to get their father’s heart returned as soon as possible so that it can be properly cremated or buried after being examined by an autopsy pathologist.
Dotson was incarcerated for 99 years after being found guilty of burglary and violating his parole at Barbour County’s Ventress Correctional Facility, of which he had served 19 of those years.
The document stated that the alleged misbehavior of prison staff was “tantamount to a death sentence,” even though he was not given a life sentence.
In their lawsuit, Dotson’s family alleged that he had violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, that he had been negligent in handling his corpse, that he had been intentionally distressing his family, that he had been negligent in attending to his medical needs and safety, that he had interfered with the family’s right to a funeral, that he had failed to notify his next of kin, and that he had died wrongfully.
Dotson reportedly reported to prison officials in the final days of his life that he was being threatened with violence by another inmate. As a result, the lawsuit claims, prison officials transferred Dotson from “segregated housing” into the general population, where he was vulnerable to attacks and drug access by those looking to harm and take advantage of him at the “grossly understaffed and severely overcrowded” Ventress Correctional Facility.
Correctional officers had “every opportunity to intervene and prevent the death of Mr. Dotson,” according to the lawsuit, but “no member… was available to prevent the abuse Mr. Dotson endured and the constant and unlimited access to drugs that he had.”
Dotson’s family claims that when he was discovered dead, his “body had already begun to stiffen.”
The lawsuit names several prison staff members as defendants, along with officials from the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, the Ventress Correctional Facility warden, and the director of the Alabama Department of Corrections.
Heersink School of Medicine at the University of Alabama is listed as a defendant as well, as the institution is a “possible intended recipient of Mr. Dotson’s heart.”
The lawsuit makes reference to a purported recent incident in which the Alabama Department of Health gave medical students “human organs and tissues” for “laboratory exercises.”
Apart from a jury trial and the return of Dotson’s heart, his family is requesting that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama to impose an injunction on Alabama DOC Commissioner John Q. Hamm and Director of the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, Angelo Della Manna.
In addition to making sure Dotson’s body was delivered to the family on time, the lawsuit said that Hamm could have “halted” the constitutional violations” that occurred in the prison and given wardens instructions to inform the family of the man’s missing heart.
In the lawsuit, it is claimed that AFDS Della Manna “instructed… medical examiners not to remove organs or tissues from a body undergoing an autopsy without permission from his next of kin.”
“In the midst of grieving Brandon Dotson’s untimely death, his family is having to fight to get the most basic answers about how he died and why the Alabama Department of Corrections returned his body without his heart,” Faraino stated to Law & Crime.
“At this time, we do not know where his heart is. It is the state’s responsibility to keep those who are in its prisons safe from harm,” the attorney for the family continued. “The ADOC failed to do that for Brandon, as they have for dozens of other individuals this year.”
Additionally, Faraino informed the outlet that Dotson was not given parole and that it’s unclear if he was informed prior to his passing.
At the time of publication, Fox News Digital was unable to get in touch with Faraino or the Alabama DOC for comment.
“At this time, we do not know where his heart is. It is the state’s responsibility to keep those who are in its prisons safe from harm,” the attorney for the family continued. “The ADOC failed to do that for Brandon, as they have for dozens of other individuals this year.”
Additionally, Faraino informed the outlet that Dotson was not given parole and that it’s unclear if he was informed prior to his passing.
At the time of publication, Fox News Digital was unable to get in touch with Faraino or the Alabama DOC for comment.
