Dexter Arvie
Dexter Arvie, 52, died on July 19, 2021, while held at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, according to records compiled by Incarceration Transparency. A federal judge, Shelly Dick, ruled in Lewis v. Cain that a man held at Angola complained of abdominal pain for two years and was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer only after he could no longer walk and was taken to hospital, where he died shortly afterward. The judge wrote that experts testified an earlier diagnosis could have prevented the death, and found the prison deliberately indifferent to medical needs. Incarceration Transparency lists the cause of death as a heart attack, a different account from the cancer described in the ruling.
Cause of death, as reported: Died of illness (disputed; neglect alleged). Federal judge Shelly Dick ruled in Lewis v. Cain that Angola staff were deliberately indifferent to his abdominal pain over two years, which delayed a diagnosis of advanced colon cancer, while Incarceration Transparency lists the cause as a heart attack.
Reported by: federal judge Shelly Dick, in Lewis v. Cain (court); Incarceration Transparency (advocates).