Black Man Killed in Faith Unit at Elmore is the 5th Alabama Prison Homicide Victim in 3 Months
/From [HERE] Jamal Wilson, 38, died on November 1 after he was assaulted at Elmore Correctional Facility in Elmore County, Alabama.
Mr. Wilson had served nearly 15 years of a 20-year sentence and would have become eligible for parole in April. At Elmore, he was designated as minimum custody and was living in a faith-based honor dormitory designatedfor individuals who have maintained a clear disciplinary record and are committed to participating in programs that develop “life skills, personal growth, and accountability with outcomes of positive personal, family, institutional, and community relationships.”
Witnesses reported to EJI that Mr. Wilson was assaulted near his bunk in the honor dorm on October 29. He was taken to the hospital but the Alabama Department of Corrections refused to allow his family to see him until after he died on November 1.
Mr. Wilson is at least the fifth person killed in an Alabama prison in the past three months, and at least the fifth person killed at Elmore in the past two years.
Marquis Hatcher, 31, was killed in an assault in an Elmore dormitory on November 4, 2022. Stephone Marshall, 38, was stabbed to death in a dormitory at Elmore on May 16, 2023. Rubyn Murray, 38, was beaten to death in a holding cell at Elmore on July 26, 2023, after correctional sergeant D’Marcus Sanders allowed other incarcerated people into the cell to assault him. Derrek Martin, also 38, was killed in his dormitory at Elmore on December 12, 2023, when witnesses told EJI the officer assigned to the dormitory was asleep and no staff responded to Mr. Martin’s cries for help.
The number of homicides in Alabama’s prisons is likely higher. A lack of supervision by officers and the absence of video monitoring means that many assaults and deaths are unobserved, and family members frequently report they are unable to get any information from the Department of Corrections about what happened to their loved ones. [MORE]
