Inmate Sues U.S. Bureau of Prisons...Gets Trial

{Pikeville, Kentucky}...Fifty-seven year old Johnny Davis, who is serving life in federal prison, filed suit in 2008 in federal court in Pikeville against the U.S. Bureau of Prisons after he had cataract surgery in 2005 while at the U.S. Penitentiary-Big Sandy in Inez. Thursday, U.S. District Judge Amul R. Thapar granted him a May 7th trial in Lexington. The case is unusual, both because Davis pursued it for the first three years without the assistance of an attorney and because he'll get a trial, unless a settlement is reached. Davis' current attorney, MacKenzie Mayes Walter, who joined the lawsuit in September, said she looks forward to establishing that prison officials were responsible for Davis' "serious injuries." Davis, convicted of federal drug charges in South Carolina, is currently being held at a federal prison in Williamsburg, South Carolina. The Bureau of Prisons denies any wrongdoing or negligence in the case and says the prison medical staff followed the recommendations of the doctors in handling Davis.