The Associated Press has filed a motion seeking to protect public access to records detailing the treatment of a Tennessee death row inmate who cut off his penis while on suicide watch.
Henry Hodges has accused the state of cruel and unusual punishment for keeping him tied down with restraints on a thin vinyl mattress over a concrete slab after his return from the hospital, where surgeons reattached his penis. He was immobilized — at one point for six hours straight — despite discharge orders from Vanderbilt University Medical Center that he avoid sitting for more than two hours at a time, according to court filings, which don't mention whether that also includes lying down.
