American Civil Liberties Union : Hidden Evidence that Tennessee Guards Tortured Richard Taylor

Death Penalty:
The death penalty is the ultimate denial of civil liberties. In the past 35 years, 130 inmates were found to be innocent and released from death row. The ACLU Capital Punishment Project is fighting for the end of the death penalty by supporting moratorium and repeal movements through public education and advocacy. We are engaged in systemic reform of the death penalty process, and case-specific litigation highlighting some of its fundamental flaws.

Hidden Evidence that Tennessee Guards Tortured Richard Taylor

In 1981, shortly after his arrest, Richard Taylor was tortured and abused by Tennessee Department of Correction Prison guards. A prison guard, Dale Hunt, came forward and signed a sworn declaration describing the brutal torture of Taylor for years while he was on death row. At Taylor's trial in 2003, the state prosecutor told the court that the state "absolutely" did not agree that Taylor had been tortured and that "we don't know whether any of [the Hunt declaration] is true or not." In June, 2006, the ACLU of Tennessee obtained documents through a public records act request that showed that in fact the State's own internal investigation confirmed the violent and shocking torture of Taylor by guards.

> Read the ACLU of Tennessee's public records act request for documents relating to the treatment of Richard Taylor while in custody of the Tennessee Department of Corrections
> Read the declaration of Tennessee Department of Corrections prison guard Dale Hunt
> Read the Tennessee Department of Corrections' response to the ACLU of Tennessee request and responding documents showing the torture of Richard Taylor

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