Friday, September 24, 2010
Crime Prison guard supplied death row inmate with razor used in suicide attempt
Posted by Gwynedd Stuart @gwynnstu on Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 2:12 PM
On September 21, the day he was scheduled to be executed by the State of Georgia, convicted murderer Brandon Rhode was granted an emergency stay after he attempted suicide by slashing his neck and arms with a razor blade.
According to an affidavit filed by Brian Kammer, Rhode's attorney and director of the Georgia Resource Center, Rhode was provided with the razor by a prison guard the previous Friday. The guard neglected to retrieve the razor and it remained sitting on the sink in Rhode's "Death Watch" cell, which Kammer says constitutes a violation of the Department of Corrections' pre-execution protocols. Razors are one of just three items death row inmates are prohibited from possessing.
Rhode, who was being held in the Medical Wing of Georgia Diagnostic Prison in Jackson, dismantled the disposable razor, removed the blades, and made deep slashes in his neck and arms. By the time he was discovered by the two guards tasked with monitoring him, Rhode had lost "massive amounts" of blood, had defecated on himself, and had so badly damaged veins in his arms, an IV to administer life-saving fluids was inserted into his neck. That IV port has apparently been left in place so it can be used to administer the lethal injection.
CL is waiting to hear from the Georgia Department of Corrections to find out whether the violation of protocol is being investigated and whether any disciplinary action has been taken against the guard who supplied Rhode with the razor. Kammer refers to the incident as demonstrating "deliberate indifference" on the part of the guard. Says Kammer, "[The GDOC] is obviously pretty embarrassed about this. And I’m sure heads probably rolled — if they didn’t, that’s not a good thing."
In 2000, Rhode was convicted of murdering three members of a Jones County family during a botched 1998 robbery attempt. Kammer has filed a motion on Rhode's behalf requesting another stay based on the medical opinion that Rhode might have suffered brain damaged as a result of blood loss, and therefore might be unfit to face execution.
Barring the unlikely event that the stay is granted, Rhode will be executed tonight at 7 p.m.
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