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SPECIAL REPORT-He waited 512 days behind bars for his day in court. It never came.

Published 28/10/2020, 13:13
Updated 28/10/2020, 13:18

(For more Reuters Special Reports, click on SPECIAL/ )
By Linda So and Grant Smith
MARIETTA, Georgia, Oct 28 (Reuters) - From his jail cell,
Chinedu Efoagui sent a plea. “I'm innocent,” he wrote his
lawyer. “Have all the charges dropped.”
Born in Nigeria, Efoagui, 38, had been declared a gifted
student by the Ministry of Education. He earned a master's
degree in computer science and won the visa lottery in 2012,
securing a legal path to the United States, where he became a
software programmer. “It was a dream come true,” said his sister
Chioma.
He had never been in trouble with the law when he was
arrested in 2016 in Georgia after a bizarre confrontation with
police at a traffic stop while suffering a mental breakdown.
He was sent to the Cobb County Adult Detention Center in
Marietta to await trial on charges that included obstructing a
police officer. Days turned to months. When months became a
year, he became despondent, complaining of severe chest and leg
pain. “I fear for my life,” he wrote his lawyer.
In his last letter, written after more than 16 months inside
awaiting trial, he asked when he could regain his freedom. The
day never came.
After 512 days behind bars, Efoagui died of a pulmonary
embolism from a blood clot in his leg that traveled to his
lungs, depriving him of oxygen. The treatable condition can be
caused by limited movement, such as being in a confined space
for long periods.
His 2017 death is among nearly 300 documented by Reuters
since 2008 in which inmates died after languishing in local
jails for at least a year without ever getting their day in
court to seek their freedom. Eighty-five inmates awaited their
case resolution for at least two years before their deaths.
One reason: A bail system that frees defendants with the
means to cover their bond. Efoagui is among those who couldn't
afford bond, his family said. “People need to have money to get
out,” said Nancy Fishman, formerly a project director at the
nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice in New York. “And that means
we have jails full of poor people.”
America's 3,000-plus local jails house some 745,200 inmates.
Although many are quickly released, the cases documented by
Reuters reveal how justice churns slowly and fatally for
hundreds facing local charges.
Of the unconvicted inmates identified by Reuters who were
locked up for at least a year, 173 deaths were caused by a
medical condition or illness. Sixty-one inmates died by suicide.
Many suffered from untreated mental health issues while housed
in county jails typically designed as short-term holding
facilities.

A FATEFUL STOP
On February 19, 2016 in Georgia, Efoagui parked his 2014
Chrysler 300 in the middle of the road and approached officers
investigating a car crash. He accused one of stealing his
driver's license and said he was being framed as an Islamic
State terrorist.
“Is he cray?” asked Smyrna Officer Dominique Lloyd, using
slang for crazy, a police body cam recording showed. “He's a
24,” Officer Jeremy Lanzing replied, using a code for a medical
emergency.
Efoagui told officers he didn't know how to get home, then
drove off on the wrong side of the road. Stopped by police, he
ignored commands to stay in his car and opened the door, causing
Officer Lloyd to stumble. Lanzing fired his Taser in Efoagui's
backside. “In Jesus' name, I am not ISIS,” Efoagui said.
Lanzing said Efoagui broke his body camera clip, bringing
felony charges of interfering with government property and
obstructing an officer. Other charges were misdemeanors:
Improper reduction of speed, driving on the wrong side of the
road, failure to yield to emergency vehicles, disregarding a
traffic control device.
At the Cobb detention center, medical staff from contractor
Wellstar Health System labeled him “severely” mentally ill. At
night he awoke screaming and pacing.
Bond was set at $15,000, beyond his family's reach. Attorney
David West tried to get him into the county's mental health
court, a plan complicated when Efoagui refused to cooperate with
mental health specialists who visited him.
In the sprawling, 2,000-inmate jail, Efoagui deteriorated.
On March 27, 2017, after more than a year in, he visited the
infirmary for chest pain. His heart was racing at 133 beats per
minute, according to jail medical records, well beyond the
normal adult rate of 60 to 100. A doctor returned him to his
cell.
In July, he complained of severe pain in his back, leg and
chest. He waited at least a day for a nurse to respond, jail
medical records show. The next day, he was found partially naked
near a toilet. Taken to the infirmary, he pleaded, “Help me, I'm
dying.” His body went limp.
He died July 16. An autopsy found that a blood clot from his
left leg had moved to his lungs, cutting oxygen flow.
Smyrna Police spokesman Louis Defense called the death “a
tragedy,” but added, “it's our job to enforce the law.” Wellstar
declined to comment on Efoagui's case, citing privacy concerns,
but said specific requests for medical care were the
responsibility of the Sheriff's Office. The company ended its
contract with the jail in May. The jail did not respond to
requests for comment.
A Cobb County Sheriff's Office internal review cleared its
deputies of wrongdoing. Four deputies who performed chest
compression were commended for doing a “great job,” records say.
Four independent health experts who reviewed Efoagui's
medical records for Reuters said further testing could have
saved him. “The swelling of his leg days earlier was almost
definitely due to clots,” said Marc Stern, a University of
Washington public health faculty member. Failure to address his
chest pain “had an even higher chance of contributing to his
death.”
In Nigeria, his family is left haunted by what turned out to
be a death sentence for Efoagui.
“The injustice he passed through, without anyone being
accountable, makes it harder for me to move on,” said his sister
Chioma.



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Dying Inside: The Hidden Crisis in America's Jails, Part 3 https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-jails-release/
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