JACKSON - The mother of an inmate who was fatally stabbed inside Dixon Correctional Institute is suing the warden, alleging his negligence for her son's death.

Joyce Kelly, mother of Cornelius Kelly, filed suit against Warden E. Dustin Bickham for violating her son's right to due process and to be free from cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

According to the lawsuit, Cornelius Kelly was at the institute serving time for various burglary-related charges when Joseph Constance, Terrell Holmes, Arsenio Wells, and Taylor Williams allegedly instigated an altercation with Cornelius Kelly.

The lawsuit says that the next day, two of the individuals led Cornelius Kelly into the prison yard, where he was stabbed three times by Constance. The suit cites an autopsy performed by the Jefferson Parish Forensic Center, which revealed that he was stabbed twice in his chest and once in his abdomen before collapsing and dying.

Cornelius' mother believes that her son should not have been in the prison's general population following the initial altercation. Kelly believes that the warden should have known that further harm would come to her son due to the previous incident.

Joyce Kelly is suing Bickham for failure to train and supervise his subordinates to ensure inmates are free from harm, deliberate indifference to Cornelius Kelly's constitutional right to a reasonably safe environment, and negligent, reckless, indifferent and or intentional conduct resulting in injury and death.