Black and blue: Inmate Kenneth Davis was severely beaten by guards at a Maryland correctional facility
Two former state correctional officers are going to federal prison for conspiring in the severe beating of an inmate at Roxbury Correctional Institution near Hagerstown in Maryland in 2008.
Forty-one-year-old Lanny Harris and 42-year-old Philip Mayo were both sentenced Monday in Baltimore to two-and-a-half years.
They are the first among 15 federally convicted officers to be sentenced in the case.
Both pleaded guilty after they were charged in Febrary 2013.
Harris, a former sergeant, approved a plan for other officers to assault prisoner Kenneth Davis as punishment for punching a guard.
He then helped organize a cover-up of the incident, including erasing incriminating surveillance video.
Mayo held Davis down while others kicked and punched him. He shielded Davis' face, at least partly to prevent obvious injuries.
Davis suffered a broken nose, back and ribs from being beaten by officers on three successive shifts.
U.S. District Judge James K Bredar was livid as he sentenced the pair.
'How in God's name did this culture evolve to the point where officers on three different shifts, including supervisors, came to the conclusion ... that the appropriate solution was raw, crude violence?' Bredar asked from the bench.
'Where was the leadership of this institution and of this state department?' he said.
Mark Vernarelli, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, said the department took swift action within days of the attack, resulting in 22 officers being fired or taking early retirement.
Federal prosecutors said in a filing that Davis received about $100,000 to settle an administrative complaint against the state stemming from the assault. Attorney Michael McGowan, who represented Davis in those proceedings, said Monday that he doubted Davis would consider the guards' sentences appropriate punishment.
'If you were severely beaten multiple times over an extended period of time by the people who were responsible for your safety, and then they lied about it, would you think that that was enough time?' McGowan asked in an emailed response to questions from The Associated Press.
Four other former officers are scheduled for sentencing this week. Other sentencing hearings are scheduled through July.
Two other officers pleaded guilty to state charges and were sentenced to probation in 2010 after defying what one called a 'brotherhood of silence' to testify against co-workers.
Of seven others charged in state court, five were acquitted by juries, one had charges dropped before trial and one had charges dropped after his trial ended in a hung jury.
Acts 16:37
But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privily? nay verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out.
Mark 15: 16 And the soldiers led him away into the hall, called Praetorium; and they call together the whole band.
17 And they clothed him with purple, and platted a crown of thorns, and put it about his head,
18 And began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews!
19 And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees worshipped him.
20 And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him.
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