Parties drop suit claiming Alabama inmate was returned to family without heart

ALABAMA (WHNT) — A federal lawsuit alleging the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) kept an inmate’s heart has been dismissed after both parties agreed to drop the suit.

The family of deceased inmate Brandon Clay Dotson sued the ADOC after he died at Ventress Correctional Facility in Barbour County. The suit said after Dotson’s body was returned to his family it was missing a heart. That suit has now been dismissed after both parties agreed to drop the case.

The federal judge in the case ordered the case dismissed on Wednesday after both parties requested the case be dropped. Dotson’s family and the defendants in the case, which included ADOC, The Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, ADOC Commissioner John Hamm along with several others, filed a joint “stipulation of dismissal” on April 1.

The suit was originally filed in December of 2023 after Dotson’s death on November 16, 2023, at the age of 43.

The lawsuit originally said the family spent several days attempting to collect Dotson’s body after his death but did not receive his remains until Nov 21, 2023. The suit claimed that the body was severely decomposed by that time and after the family had an autopsy performed, it was discovered Dotson’s heart was missing.

The dismissal of the case comes just days after lawsuits were filed representing five families of deceased Alabama inmates that claim UAB Medical Center took and retained inmate organs without consent from their next of kin. Dotson is not one of the inmates mentioned in any of those suits.

That lawsuit also names ADOC and Commissioner Ham as defendants.

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