Authorities in Georgia have launched an investigation after 32-year-old inmate Sheqweetta Vaughan was discovered dead and decomposing in her cell at Lee Arrendale State Prison. Officials believe she may have been dead for more than 24 hours.
Deputy Coroner Kenneth Franklin, who performed the autopsy, said Vaughan’s cause of death remains undetermined. Though prison staff claimed they had checked on her at 10:08 a.m. and found her unresponsive at 10:40 a.m. on July 9, Franklin said the condition of her body suggested she had been dead two to four hours, or possibly longer. With cell temperatures reportedly in the 90s and little ventilation, decomposition likely accelerated.
The Georgia Department of Corrections maintains that inmates in segregation are checked every 30 minutes. However, former Fort Benning pathology chief Dr. Paul Uribe disputed that claim, saying Vaughan’s state of decay indicated far more time had passed: “That degree of decomposition doesn’t come within 30 minutes, within an hour or within two hours.”
Vaughan had been jailed just six months after giving birth and was serving a two-year sentence. Advocacy group Motherhood Beyond Bars, which knew her through its childbirth education program, called her death preventable. “Sheqweetta was funny, supportive of others, and hopeful for her future,” the group wrote. Executive director Amy Ard added that Vaughan had mental health diagnoses and should not have been placed in solitary confinement, describing the sweltering, unventilated cell as “inhumane.”
The Independent has reached out to both the coroner’s office and the Department of Corrections for further details, including whether required cell checks had been completed that day.
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