A former Alabama prison guard faces 20 years prison for charges surrounding the beating of an inmate who later died from his injuries.

Matthew Davidson, a former corrections officer at Ventress Correctional Facility in Clayton, Ala., and two other corrections officers were charged with civil rights violations and obstructing justice for an August 4th incident where a prisoner was beaten after an altercation with a staff member.

Court documents say Davidson admitted to beating Rocrast Mack [1] in the prison yard, then handcuffing him and taking him into an office to beat him again. This time another corrections officer, Scott Glenn, and his supervisor, Michael Smith, joined in with batons.

Then Mack was taken to the prison hospital where he was grabbed from a hospital bed by his handcuffs and “repeatedly stomped on by the supervisor.”

Mack, who was serving 20 years for selling $10 worth of crack cocaine, died the next day from his injuries.

The officers tried to cover up the crimes by lying on official reports and later to investigators. It was revealed later that Mack’s death was part of a much larger pattern of misconduct [2]at Ventress.

Davidson faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for each charge.

Smith is also charged with “assaulting the victim, which resulted in bodily injury to, and the death of, the victim,” says the Justice Department. If convicted, he could face life in prison [3] or the death penalty.

Smith and Sanders will go to trial June 10, 2013.

For more on the Rocrast Mack case, visit the Equal Justice Initiative [4] Web site.