Families seek answers after inmates’ bodies return without internal organs

MONTGOMERY, Alabama. Agolia Moore was shocked to receive a call that her son had been found dead in an Alabama prison of a suspected drug overdose. She had spoken to him that night and he was fine, talking about his hopes of moving into the prison’s honors dormitory, Moore said.

When his body arrived at the funeral home after undergoing a state autopsy, the funeral director informed the family that the 43-year-old man’s internal organs were missing. The family said they did not give permission for his organs to be retained or destroyed.

Moore said her daughter and other son drove four hours to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where the autopsy was performed, and picked up a sealed red bag containing what they were told were her brother’s organs. They buried the bag with him.

“We shouldn’t be here. This is something out of science fiction. Any human being would not believe something so barbaric was happening,” said Simone Moore, Kelvin’s brother, on Tuesday.

Six families whose loved ones died in the state prison system have filed lawsuits against the commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections and others, saying their family members’ bodies were returned to them without internal organs after undergoing autopsies ordered by the state. The families packed the Montgomery courtroom Tuesday for a brief conference on the status of the consolidated litigation.

“We will seek more answers about what happened to these organs and where they ended up,” said Lauren Faraino, an attorney representing the families, after the trial. Faraino said there are other families affected.

In one lawsuit, another family said a funeral home in 2021 similarly told them that “none of the organs were returned” with their father’s body after his death while incarcerated.

The lawsuits also claim that a group of UAB medical students in 2018 became concerned that a disproportionate number of specimens they encountered during their medical training came from people who died in prison. They questioned whether the families of those incarcerated had the same ability as the families of other patients to request the return of organs along with the body.

UAB, in previous statement regarding the dispute, said the Alabama Department of Corrections was “responsible for obtaining the appropriate authorizations from the decedent’s appropriate legal representative.” “UAB does not harvest organs from the bodies of inmates for research, as has been reported in the media,” the statement read.

UAB spokeswoman Hannah Echols said in an emailed statement Tuesday that organs are sometimes kept for additional testing if a pathologist believes it is necessary to help determine the cause of death.

The University of Alabama System, which includes UAB, is a defendant in the lawsuits. Lawyers for the university system have indicated they will file a request to dismiss the lawsuits. UAB no longer performs autopsies for the state prison system.

The Alabama Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.