By C1 Staff
HARTFORD, Conn. – An inmate, who’s liquid-only hunger strike led a state Supreme Court to uphold the rights of prison officials to force-feed prisoners, has been transferred to immigration authorities for deportation to England.
The Courant reports that William Coleman started his hunger strike in 2007 after being convicted two years previous for raping his wife during a divorce and custody battle. He maintained his wife fabricated the allegations.
When he was scheduled to be released in December and refused to register as a sex offender, he was re-incarcerated.
By 2008, his weight dropped from 237 pounds to 129. Prison officials began to force-feed him by restraining him and giving him either artificial hydration and electrolytes intravenously, or nutrition through a tube inserted through his nose into his stomach.
Coleman later agreed to liquid nutrition, and then changed his mind.
His lawyers argued that his First Amendment right to protest and right to refuse medical treatment were violated; lawyers for the attorney general’s office responded that prison officials had an obligation to prevent what they called inmate suicides.
In 2010, Superior Court Judge James T. Graham sided with prison officials and said the state’s obligation to maintain order outweighed Coleman’s rights.