A death row inmate severed his own penis in his prison cell and asked to be placed on suicide watch.
Henry Hodges, who was sentenced to death in 1992 for murdering a telephone repairman, began smearing feces in his cell because he was upset that officials wouldn’t let him have a special food package he ordered, his lawyer Kelley Henry said.
Hodges was denied because he had clear conduct for five months instead of the six required, Henry said. A guard stopped feeding Hodges to curb him from continuing to smear feces. But Hodges responded by slitting his wrists with a razor in his cell on October 7, said his lawyer who visited him at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
After being transported to the infirmary, Hodges asked to be on suicide watch, Henry said.
A ‘high-ranking correctional officer’ told a medic tending Hodges that he was manipulating them and could be placed on suicide watch in his jail cell, according to Henry.