New legislation has been introduced to deal with the storage of prisoners' organs after death in prison.

Rep. Chris England (D-Tuscaloosa) is the sponsor of this bill, the latest of a number of criminal reform bills he has introduced this early Congress.

The bill states that a medical examiner “may not preserve the entire organs of a deceased person for research or other purposes unrelated to identification, cause of death, or cause of death, without proper notice and approval of: It is stipulated that “no Relatives. ”

If this provision is violated, the coroner may be charged with a class C felony. In Alabama, an individual convicted of a Class C felony can be sentenced to a minimum of one year to a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000.

There have been at least three recent high-profile cases in which families have revealed that they received bodies with various organs missing after the death of their incarcerated loved ones. The incident involves the removal of organs from Brandon Dotson. kelvin moore and Charles Edward Singleton.

After an inmate dies in the custody of the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC), an autopsy is performed by the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences or the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

In Dotson's case, her body was returned to her family in a decomposed state with her heart missing. Dotson's family subsequently filed a lawsuit against ADOC, UAB, and ADFS, alleging that they may have been involved in the removal of her organs without her family's consent or notification.

In July 2021, Governor Kay Ivey signed a bill aimed at preventing the retention of organs after autopsy without consent from next of kin. However, it appears that this was not followed in his three cases mentioned above.

The bill is scheduled to be referred to the House Judiciary Committee this week for passage in the House.