- Cecil Koger, 35, filed a lawsuit claiming his civil rights are being violated
- The accused murderer said the prison has forcibly cut his hair five times
- He says it has impeded his ability to practice his Rastafarianism religion
- The complaint argues guards used pepper-spray to subdue him
A convicted killer in an Ohio prison claims in a federal lawsuit that his civil rights have been violated by the repeated cutting of his dreadlocks.
The lawsuit filed on behalf of inmate Cecil Koger, 35, says his faith of Rastafarianism requires him to wear his hair in dreadlocks.
The lawsuit filed last week says the prison has forcibly cut his hair five times, impeding his ability to practice his religion.
Pictured here is Cecil Koger, convicted of aggravated murder and aggravated robbery in an undated photo
The lawsuit says Ohio’s prison system has allowed dreadlocks for other inmates and seeks to force the prison system to recognize Rastafarianism as a religion.
It also says that on five occasions employees of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction held down Koger and forcefully cut his dreadlocks.
Guards also used pepper-spray to subdue him, the complaint argues.
Koger has been under state custody since 2000 and is currently being held in Trumbull Correctional Institution in Leavittsburg.
Rastafarianism is classified as a new religious movement and a social movement that was developed in Jamaica during the 1930s.
They believe Haile Selassie is God, and that he will return to Africa members of the black community who are living in exile as the result of colonization and the slave trade.