Dead inmate claimed he feared for his life

JACKSON, Miss. — Two days before he was found hanging in his prison cell, a convicted killer sent his aunt a letter saying guards had beaten him from head to toe for throwing water on an officer, and he feared for his life.

"I’m not lying Auntie, call as soon as you get this. I could be in great danger," Christopher Smiley wrote in the Nov. 24 letter. He added: "If you do not get this, I might get killed."

Smiley, a 27-year-old psychiatric patient serving a life sentence for murder, was found hanging from a bedsheet noose at Parchman state prison on Nov. 26. An autopsy found the death to be consistent with suicide.

Corrections commissioner Chris Epps said that an internal investigation is under way but that there has been no indication of wrongdoing by officers.

Smiley, who was convicted in 2000, was among the prison’s worst-behaved inmates, with 14 serious rules violations and incidents requiring him to be moved 45 times, Epps said.

Linda Granger, Smiley’s aunt, said the letter made her doubt that Smiley killed himself.

"He never, never talked about taking his life," Granger said from her Atlanta home.

Granger said she received the letter Dec. 8. Smiley had addressed it to the American Civil Liberties Union with instructions to forward it to Granger.

Margaret Winter, director of the ACLU’s National Prisons Project, said she has asked state corrections officials to preserve any evidence that turns up. She said she suspects he was abused physically.

Smiley said he was beaten after an officer accused him of throwing urine at a female officer. He said it was actually water.

In the letter, Smiley said a "takedown team" sprayed him with tear gas, dragged him from his cell and beat him so severely that he was covered with bruises. He also said he was denied psychiatric medication.

Epps said Smiley was forcibly taken from his regular cell and put in a "management cell" with a transparent door — the standard punishment for throwing food, liquid or feces at an officer.

"The takedown team was summoned, gas was used and finally he got to be handcuffed," Epps said. He added that Smiley was not denied medication.

Epps said that during the transfer, Smiley fell while in restraints and was examined at a hospital before being put in the special cell. He was found dead there two days later.

"We haven’t been able to determine that he was beaten," Epps said.