Contempt Hearing Scheduled In Prisoner Autopsy Ban Case

Civil and criminal contempt hearings are scheduled in federal court in Nashville, Tennessee for July 28 as the daughter of executed murderer Sedley Alley claims the state medical examiner and a prison warden ignored an order issued by the court. The court, heeding Alley's religious objections, prohibited the state from performing an autopsy on Alley's body. (See prior posting.) Yesterday, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported that Glenn Funk, attorney for state medical examiner Dr. Bruce Levy, said that an autopsy was not performed, but that fluids were routinely removed from the body. Funk also said that the medical examiner's office did not know of the preliminary injunction that was issued only three hours before Alley's late-night execution, and was not served on authorities until the next morning.