Steven Davis in an undated photo. Davis was killed while in custody in October 2019. The Alabama Department of Corrections has agreed to pay $250,000 to Davis’ mother, Sandy Ray, to settle a wrongful death claim. (Courtesy Sandy Ray)
The Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) has settled a wrongful death lawsuit against corrections officers who beat a man to death at the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility in 2019, though the department continues to deny that the officers used excessive force.
A settlement payment of $250,000 was issued on Aug. 16 in the case of Sondra Ray v. Roderick Gadson, et al., according to data from Alabama’s Department of Finance.
Before reaching the settlement, the state paid 11 different attorneys or firms a total of $393,000 to defend the corrections officers named in the lawsuit, the records show.
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Ray filed the lawsuit in 2020 after the October 2019 death of her son, Steven Davis. The day before he was removed from life support, Davis, 35, was rushed to UAB Hospital with critical injuries after an incident involving multiple officers inside a “behavior modification unit” or “hot bay” at Donaldson prison. A medical examiner classified Davis’ death as a homicide, caused by “blunt force injuries of head sustained during an assault.”