Transgender Muslim inmate serving 55 years for killing baby files $150K lawsuit for not being allowed to wear hijab

A transgender inmate serving a 55-year sentence for killing her infant is suing an Indiana prison chaplain for allegedly refusing her right to wear a hijab before rejecting her identity as a transgender woman.

Autumn Cordellionè, also known as Jonathan C. Richardson, is serving her sentence at the all-male state prison Branchville Correctional Facility, where she is confined to only hearing her hijab in her immediate sleeping quarters, according to a civil lawsuit filed in November.

The chaplain allegedly delivered the news in May 2023, even after Cordellionè claimed to have already relented to prison protocol by wearing the Muslim headwear in a less traditional manner to adhere to safety concerns.

“[I] was told that male Muslims could wear their kufis everywhere they went, but I couldn’t wear my hijab a females religious head ware because I was a male residing in a male institution even though I am a transgender woman, except in my bed area,” Cordellionè alleged in the complaint. 

The prison cleric had allegedly tried to order Cordellionè against wearing the religious scarf because her official religious beliefs were listed as “Wiccan,” a form of paganism whose followers practice witchcraft and nature worship.

Cordellionè, who was convicted of strangling her 11-month-old stepdaughter to death in 2001, fired back, stating she practices several religions and she is an “Islamic practicing transwoman” who uses the hijab to cover her head and ears for “modesty purposes.”

“I responded that I am an eclectic practitioner who is a member of the Theosophical Society in America,” she wrote in the complaint.

“I practice a diversity of faiths in order to custom tailor my spiritual beliefs to my spiritual needs.”

Cordellionè claimed the chaplain violated her 14th Amendment rights by singling her out against wearing her religious garb because of her status as a transgender woman.

She also claimed he violated her Eight Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment by subjecting her to “harassment and ridicule” by other Muslim prisoners.

“He should be aware, as Chaplain, the stigma and shame that is attributed to Islamic women when they go uncovered and without a hijab,” she wrote.

“Women are viewed as whores, tempters of men, and adulterators; by Islamic society both in and out of prison. I have been shunned, made a social pariah, and amongst my own religious community … For without the support of the Islamic community, I will struggle and likely fail to achieve salvation for by Mohammed’s teachings a Muslim who knows of the teachings, yet strays away from them will never reach heaven.”

Cordellionè is seeking $150,000 in damages and the right to wear her hijab throughout the prison.

When contacted by The Post, a spokesperson for the IDOC said the agency “does not comment on pending litigation.”

She is embroiled in another ongoing lawsuit, lodged against the Indiana Department of Corrections for not granting her wish to get sex reassignment surgery. 

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed the lawsuit on Cordellionè’s behalf in August, just three months after she was allegedly blocked from wearing her headscarf, but before she formally sued the chaplain.

The ACLU alleged the IDOC was violating Cordellionè’s Eight and Fourteenth Amendment rights after a law was passed that year banning the IDOC from using taxpayer dollars to fund sex reassignment surgeries for inmates.

“The DOC cannot deny necessary treatment to incarcerated people simply on the basis that they are transgender. To do so is a form of discrimination,” said Ken Falk, ACLU of Indiana legal director, said at the time. “Gender-affirming care is life-saving care. If the legislature can deny a form of healthcare arbitrarily, they could just as easily deny other lifesaving treatments to people who are incarcerated.” 

Cordellionè was convicted in 2001 of reckless homicide for strangling her 11-month-old stepdaughter to death.

While awaiting trial, she told a corrections officer: “We all I know is I killed the little f–king bitch.”

Her earliest possible release date is set for December 2027, records show.