A Prison Tactical Team stands by a prostrate prisoner.

Charles Jason Toll was just 33 when he died. He suffered from diabetes and mental illness, diagnoses that prison officials at Riverbend in Nashville, Tennessee, where he was incarcerated, knew. Yet they decided to extract him from his cell following a minor infraction with excessive force, pinning him under an electrified shield, ignoring him as he pleaded, and dragging him away.

If it seems as if prison officials’ actions led to Toll’s death, it’s because they did. The coroner ruled his death a homicide. At first, it looked like they’d get away with it. Then new evidence emerged, giving Toll’s mother, Jane Luna, a second chance at securing justice for her son.

There’s a court’s sanitized account of what happened that night:

In August 2010, Toll was in solitary confinement at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, when he allegedly threw liquid at a correctional officer. Because of this incident, Horton, the shift commander, decided to extract Toll from his cell. Once the cell extraction team, which included Doss and Horton, removed Toll from his cell, Toll became unresponsive. An ambulance transported Toll to a hospital, where a doctor pronounced him dead.

Then there’s the New York Times describing what the video showed.