Death row inmate says GA prison won’t give proper cancer care. Macon court hears the case
A man incarcerated at a Georgia prison has filed a lawsuit in Macon, alleging Georgia Department of Corrections employees are deliberately indifferent to his cancer treatment and causing his condition to worsen, court records show.
Michael Miller, 62, says in a lawsuit filed Monday that his stage 4 lung cancer, which was first diagnosed in July 2020, has “progressed to the point where his prognosis is now very grim, and his health continues to deteriorate,” according to the lawsuit. Miller is suing officials at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison and administrative members of the GDC.
As an incarcerated man housed at the GDCP, he is entirely reliant on them for his health care — but he argues that the care for his cancer had been inconsistent.
To receive treatment, he needs to submit forms that request medication or an evaluation from medics. However, as he is on death row for a murder conviction in Walton County, he and other prisoners on death row at the GDCP don’t have easy access to those forms.
“This is a civil rights action for damages, declaratory, and injunctive relief ... arising from the grossly deficient medical care at the (GDCP), which has caused unnecessary pain and suffering and the deterioration of Michael Miller’s health from inadequately treated lung cancer, sporadic and interrupted delivery of critical pain medication, and other serious, debilitating and life-threatening medical conditions,” the lawsuit said.
Miller is suing several people:
- Ahmed Holt, assistant commissioner of the facilities division
- Jack “Randy” Sauls, assistant commissioner of the health services division
- Dr. Marlah Mardis, current statewide medical director
- Dr. Sharon Lewis, previous statewide medical director
- Jacob Beasley, warden of security of the GDCP
- Shenecca King, deputy warden of security
- Timothy Roberts, deputy warden of security
- Shawn Emmons, previous warden of the GDCP
- Alexander Tillman, previous deputy warden of care and treatment
- Mark Agbaosi, previous deputy warden of security
- LaChesa Smith, previous deputy warden of care and treatment
Miller alleges that they all were aware of his lack of consistent treatment, which eventually worsened his condition. But they allegedly exercised deliberate indifference and provided care that “falls far beneath constitutional standards,” which violates the Eighth and 14th Amendments, according to the lawsuit.
A lawsuit represents one side of a legal argument. The GDC has not responded to requests for comment by The Telegraph, nor has it filed a legal reply in court records.
‘Years-long absence of appropriate treatment’
Miller had experienced more than six months in 2020 where he coughed up blood, had difficulty breathing, experienced chest pains, nausea, profuse sweating and cardiac symptoms, followed by concerning test results. Diagnostic medical appointments were constantly delayed to the point that repeated pleas from medical staff and Miller’s legal team would get him diagnosed with lung cancer, his lawsuit says.
After being diagnosed, it allegedly took the GDC over a year to treat Miller’s conditions, which was “against the advice and written orders of his oncologist and despite continuous pleas from Mr. Miller and his legal team — allowing the cancer to progress and causing many medical emergencies for Mr. Miller in the interim,” the lawsuit alleges.
He received his first round of chemotherapy on Sept. 7, 2021, but his treatment abruptly ended in January 2023 due to the alleged inconsistent communication from the GDC with Miller’s medical providers, the lawusit said.
Recent scans showed a “years-long absence of appropriate treatment” which caused Miller’s cancer to continue to grow and spread.
For him to receive treatments, he would have to submit “sick calls,” which are forms he uses to request medical assistance. However, the forms are not available in his cell block. He has to request the forms from correctional officers and nurses, but often never got them when he asked.
“What happens to the sick call request afterward is completely dependent on the individual employee,” Miller’s attorney wrote in his lawsuit. “It may take days or over a week for Mr. Miller to hear back about a sick call request, while other times he has submitted a form and never received a response at all and has not been taken to a sick call or seen by a healthcare professional.”
This has delayed and caused lapses in his cancer treatment, the delivery of his pain medication and the diagnosis and treatment of other serious medical conditions, like pneumonia and chronic leg pain, his lawsuit says.
Miller’s treatment this year
Miller’s alleged lack of care has carried on in 2025. Though he was able to get chemotherapy appointments, he would go to them sporadically. In October 2024, he didn’t get Neurontin, a medication used to treat nerve pain, for a couple of weeks. He was told by a physician at the GDCP that they weren’t sure why he hadn’t received his medication, but that it had been re-ordered. By November, documents from his provider showed “a continued lapse in Mr. Miller’s pain medication,” according to the lawsuit.
He had gone two days without taking his pain medication in January when no nurses came to work at the GDCP, his lawsuit said. When nurses returned for work, he was given half-doses of his pain medication. His legal team reached out to the GDC and were told Mardis would check on it.
Miller’s legal team again contacted the GDC in February after Miller told them he had no morphine, and they told the department that “the continued lapses were unacceptable.” The GDC responded, confirming that the medical director would order the medication. While the morphine was ordered and on its way to the prison, Miller was given a replacement medication until the morphine arrived, according to court records.
In May, Miller was given an “extra and premature dose of steroids” before chemotherapy treatment, which caused his blood sugar to remain extremely high for over a month, preventing him from attending a following chemotherapy appointment, his lawsuit says.
The lawsuit alleges GDCP medical staff didn’t checked Miller’s blood sugar levels frequently enough, but when they did, they would administer insulin. But it “did not control the extreme levels,” the lawsuit said. He would experience weeks of dizziness, fatigue, extreme discomfort, irritability and spots in his vision.
“It was not until Mr. Miller saw his treating oncologist in June that she noticed the alarming blood sugar levels and changed Mr. Miller’s treatment regimen to correct the levels,” the lawsuit said.
However, “the horrors of Mr. Miller’s inadequate medicine delivery have continued up to the filing of this document,” according to the lawsuit.
Because the GDC was unable to get morphine consistently for several months and his replacement medication didn’t effectively treat his pain, they attempted a second replacement medication, but they were unable to give it to Miller as it had expired on Aug. 7. He would experience chest pains, intense lethargy, shortness of breath, inability to move and intense nausea, court records show.
By the time of the filing of the lawsuit, Miller’s morphine medication was found to be on an indefinite backlog, and he was still being treated with the same replacement medication that wouldn’t help with his pain, but instead worsened his condition.
“Time and time again, Defendants have been put on notice that Mr. Miller is not receiving his necessary prescription medication and that the failure to do so has resulted in extreme pain and suffering,” the lawsuit said. “(The defendants) have exhibited deliberate indifference to Mr. Miller’s serious medical needs by failing to ensure he receives his medications as prescribed and in a timely manner.”
