About 16 people packed a Montgomery courtroom on Tuesday, representing eight families of men who died in Alabama prisons and whose bodies were returned to them after autopsies missing internal organs. The men — Arthur Olen Stapler, Jim William Kennedy, Anthony Perez Brackins, Kelvin Lamar Moore, Charles Singleton, Jerry Hammond, Mohamad Osman and Barry Culver — all died while incarcerated and were autopsied by the University of Alabama at Birmingham before their families say they discovered organs, and in one case bones, were gone.
The families are suing the Alabama Department of Corrections, the University of Alabama System and associated individuals, as reported by AL.com. Some families say they later received organs they could not verify actually belonged to their relatives, and funeral home staff were the ones who alerted several families to the missing organs while preparing bodies for burial. One family was told that bones were also missing from the body.
Kelvin Moore’s organs were among those removed in 2023. His mother, Simone Moore, and his sister drove from Mobile to Birmingham and collected his organs in a medical bag at UAB, according to the same AL.com account. Brandon Dotson’s mother still does not know what happened to her son’s heart; his case is pending in Barbour County, while similar lawsuits are moving forward in Jefferson County.
UAB Points to Its Contract With the Prison System
UAB’s lawyers argued in the Montgomery hearing that its longstanding contract with the Alabama Department of Corrections authorized autopsies. That contract ended in 2024 — a split that, according to Alabama Daily News, has left the state prison system unable to find another vendor to perform autopsies on natural or suspected overdose inmate deaths.
George Newton, representing the University of Alabama System and the Health Services Foundation, argued that doctors who signed autopsy agreements for their state employer should not be held individually liable. Newton also contended that some claims were not viable and others were barred by the statute of limitations. Attorney Lauren Faraino, who represents six of the eight families, countered that UAB’s organ-retention practice involved fraud and concealment from families and said the practice could have occurred hundreds of times. Attorney Mike Strickland represents the remaining two families.
In Matthew Harrell’s case, a prison warden signed an autopsy authorization form, according to Courthouse News.
No Immediate Ruling as Written Filings Are Ordered
Montgomery County Circuit Judge J.R. Gaines, who is presiding over the lawsuits, did not issue an immediate ruling Tuesday. A tentative December 2027 trial date was also mentioned.
The Montgomery hearing echoes a broader pattern described in other Alabama organ-retention cases. Inmate Jim William Kennedy died at Limestone Correctional Facility in April 2023, and after UAB performed an autopsy, his body was delivered to a funeral home missing all internal organs and with broken ribs before his family received official notification of his death, according to Courthouse News. In a separate case, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Pat Ballard allowed a lawsuit to move forward in August 2025 against UAB and two individual pathologists brought by the parents of federal inmate Matthew Harrell, whose organs were retained after a prison warden authorized the autopsy without family consent, the outlet reported.
Financial Ties and a Push for Criminal Penalties
Data presented to UAB’s Ethics Oversight Committee in 2018 showed that between 2006 and 2015, UAB’s Division of Autopsy generated 23 percent of its annual income from Department of Corrections autopsies and another 29 percent from the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, according to the Alabama Reflector. A study by former medical students found that some teaching specimens came from incarcerated people.
In a January 2024 public statement, UAB defended its pathology department, asserting its autopsy procedures complied with College of American Pathologists guidelines and that an internal panel of medical ethicists had reviewed and endorsed its protocols regarding incarcerated individuals.
The legal landscape remains unsettled. In April 2025, Montgomery County Circuit Judge J.R. Gaines denied state defense motions to dismiss the organ-retention lawsuits under sovereign immunity, ruling that state immunity does not protect officials who act willfully, maliciously, fraudulently, or beyond their legal authority. Then, on January 30, 2026, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in the Charles Singleton case that a two-year statute of limitations barred most tort and conversion claims against the UAB Health Services Foundation, though it allowed claims under the Alabama Uniform Anatomical Gift Act to proceed, per the ABA Journal.
At the state capitol, Alabama Representative Chris England introduced House Bill 71 in January 2026, which would make it a Class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $15,000 fine for medical examiners to retain a deceased person’s organs without next-of-kin notification and consent.
Outside the Montgomery County courthouse Tuesday, families demanded a meeting with UAB officials, while Simone Moore commented on the university’s trustees. The families said they would support one another and continue fighting for others facing similar circumstances as their cases, and others still pending in Jefferson and Barbour counties, make their way through the courts.
