MACON, Ga. — Bobby Edward Lee Jr. died from gang violence, inhumane conditions, understaffing and apathy by Macon State Prison officials, a federal lawsuit says.
According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, guards found Lee strangled to death in his cell on July 13, 2020.
He was at least the sixth inmate killed at the Oglethorpe prison in a six-month period.
The civil-rights lawsuit filed in Macon's U.S. District Court Tuesday says Lee was at risk in prison because he was never a gang member.
After he was robbed and assaulted by other inmates, prison officials moved Lee to a new dormitory and assigned him a new cellmate.
According to the lawsuit, he was Tony Cary Mitchell, serving life for murdering a roommate in a halfway house.
After Mitchell threatened to kill him, the lawsuit says, Lee screamed and pleaded for a day and a half for help from prison officials.
Other inmates heard what was going on and also yelled and banged on their cell doors for the guards, according to the lawsuit.
Nobody came until after Lee was strangled, the suit says.
Lee, 38, was serving a 15-year sentence for armed robbery.
According to the lawsuit, Mitchell was indicted last year for the murder.
The suit goes on to describe conditions at Macon State Prison in the first half of 2020: It included "nearly weekly inmate-on-inmate stabbings and assaults." Many inmates openly carried hand-made "shanks" or "shivs." Cell doors didn't lock.
Inmates rioted several times that year due to rotten food, roach- and rat-infested cells, broken plumbing, 100-degree heat and no showers for weeks or months.
Meanwhile, the suit says, Macon State was "grossly understaffed," with an officer vacancy rate of 47 percent.
According to the lawsuit, Lee's only heir is a minor child, identified only by the initials SAW.
The lawsuit was filed by Shaundra Clark, the child's guardian. It claims that prison conditions violated Lee's Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
Her lawyer, Carl Vardnedoe of Savannah, says Clark declined to be interviewed.
But the details in the lawsuit echo complaints by the federal Justice Department when they announced an investigation into Georgia prisons.
Last year, federal officials said understaffing in Georgia prisons may be breeding violence and civil rights violations.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clark blamed extreme staffing shortages and high turnover among corrections officers.
She says conditions in Georgia prisons may violate the constitutional guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment.
13WMAZ reached out to the Georgia Department of Corrections; they have not responded.
