MDOC: Parchman inmate found dead by apparent suicide

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - Another inmate has died at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.

Sunflower County Coroner Heather Burton confirms that the inmate was found hanging in his one-man cell in Unit 29 Wednesday morning.

MDOC has identified the inmate as Thomas Lee, 49.

MDOC said officers performed CPR for several minutes before he was pronounced dead at 10:47 a.m.

Lee pleaded guilty to capital murder and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole on Oct. 20, 2014, in Grenada County Circuit Court for the death of Grenada police Capt. Wayne Haddock.

Haddock was struck by a fleeing car on Oct. 7, 2011, while attempting to lay spikes across Mississippi Highway 8 west to stop the car. Lee was a passenger in the car.

The county coroner says the cause of death “appears consistent with ligature hanging,” but the official cause and manner of death are pending confirmation by an autopsy and an investigation by the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

This is the second death by hanging reported within a week. Two other inmates were killed by “blunt force” trauma during violence at the prison on Tuesday morning.

Four other inmates have died at Parchman since the beginning of the new year.

The investigation into the death is ongoing, and the cause and the manner are pending confirmation of an autopsy. Identification of the inmate is pending notification of the next of kin.
— MDOC (@MS_MDOC) January 22, 2020