SACRAMENTO - A Sacramento attorney is suing Sacramento's Main Jail,
saying his client's civil and religious rights have been denied since
he has been refused a vegan diet. The inmate has been on a hunger
strike since March 8, his attorney said.
Sacramento sheriff's officials say Eric Taylor McDavid, 28, is free to
discard what he finds inedible, and still get a diet that meets
nutritional standards.
McDavid is accused of conspiring to blow up Nimbus Dam and a nearby
fish hatchery in Rancho Cordova, and a U.S. Forest Service genetics
lab in Placerville.
Mark Reichel, McDavid's criminal attorney who also filed the federal
lawsuit Friday, said his client is suffering.
"He's not doing well, he's disoriented, tired and fatigued," Reichel
said. "This really is beneath the dignity of a society that calls
itself civilized."
Reichel is suing under a 2000 law that protects the religious rights
of institutionalized people.
Reichel said McDavid has been a vegan for three years, and equates his
avoidance of animal products to a religion.
"His vegan diet is based upon his strongly, sincerely and firmly held
beliefs, which are the same as a religious belief," the lawsuit
states.
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full story: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_3640193
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