BANG SAEN, CHONBURI, THAILAND - 2002/09/01: A scene from the Thai cult movie "The Last Life in the Universe." Here the main character, Kenji, a quiet spoken librarian who fantasizes about suicide, is about to slit his wrists. The role of Kenji is played by by popular Japanese actor Asano Tadanobu. The film's director, Pan-ek, is growing in stature as one of Thailand's most promising film makers and is known for his visual flair and black humour.The low budget film has garnered widespread international acclaim. Asano won the 'Best Actor' award for his role in "The Last Life in the Universe" at the Venice Film Festival in 2003. (Photo by Gerhard Joren/LightRocket via Getty Images)
A Tennessee death row inmate cut off his own penis and slit his own wrists with a hidden razor after asking prison officials to be placed on suicide watch, according to to his lawyer.
Henry Eugene Hodges, who’s been on death row for the 1990 murder of a telephone repairman, had the bloody meltdown earlier this month. He did so allegedly over a food package.
Prison staff refused to let him have a special package because he was one month short of a required six months of good conduct, his attorney Kelley Henry told the Associated Press.
A corrections officer decided to stop feeding him an an effort to get him to stop smearing feces around his cell, prompting Hodges to cut his own wrists with a razor he had hidden in his cell at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, she said.
He then allegedly asked to be put on suicide watch at the prison’s infirmary.
However, a “high-ranking” jail officer told the nurse treating Hodges that he was manipulating them and could be placed on suicide watch when he was back in his cell.
It was there where he later cut off his own penis.
Doctors were miraculously able to reattach his penis at a hospital, before he was went back to prison, where he has remained restrained and confined to a thin mattress on a concrete block, according to his lawyer.
He was initially placed in four-point restraints, but was able to free his hand and rip out his catheter, prompting officials to place him in six-point restraints, she told the AP.
He eventually agreed to take his medication before being returned to four-point restraints, however he hasn’t been allowed to leave his bed or walk. He has also been on a hunger strike.
Hodges had previously been diagnosed with bipolar disorder mixed type with psychotic episodes, his lawyer went on to say.
“He needs competent mental health care. Surely the prison can find a place to put him where he is not a danger to himself or others and does not have to be tied down like an animal,” she told the AP.
Henry added that she needs to talk to general counsel Debbie Inglis, who’s been out on leave. The Tennessee Department of Correction did not immediately return a request for comment from the AP.
In 1992, Hodges was sentenced to death for murdering Ronald Bassett in May 1990.
He was also convicted of another murder in Georgia, where he killed a North Carolina chemical engineer at an Atlanta hotel.
