The state of Indiana will have to pay for the gender affirmation surgery of a transgender inmate who killed a baby.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Young ruled that Autumn Cordellioné, whose real name was Jonathan C. Richardson, had been subjected to “cruel and unusual punishment” after she was denied gender-affirming surgery, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)who filed the lawsuit.
Young ordered that the Department of Corrections must provide Cordellioné with surgery as soon as possible.
“Today marks a significant victory for transgender people in Indiana prisons,” ACLU of Indiana Legal Director Ken Falk said in a statement. “Denying evidence-based health care to incarcerated people simply because they are transgender is unconstitutional. We are pleased that the Court agreed.”
The transgender inmate is currently serving a 55-year prison sentence for killing a baby.
She admitted to killing ‘the little f***ing dog’ after being arrested for the strangulation death of her 11-month-old stepdaughter.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Young ruled that Autumn Cordellioné, whose real name was Jonathan C. Richardson, had been subjected to “cruel and unusual punishment” after she was denied gender-affirming surgery.
Young (pictured) determined the surgery was “medically necessary” and Indiana must provide the inmate with the surgery as soon as possible.
Young considered the surgery to be “medically necessary” and denying him medical care violated his Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights, according to court documents.
The Eighth Amendment protects citizens from cruel punishment, while the Fourteenth Amendment provides equal protection to all citizens under the law.
“Ms Cordellioné has demonstrated that an injunction is necessary,” the judge wrote. “There is no doubt that gender dysphoria is a serious illness from an objective point of view.”
Young said Cordellioné was at “a substantial risk of irreparable injury in the absence of an injunction” and that without surgery he could cause self-harm, including “another attempt to castrate himself or die by suicide,” according to court documents.
“The evidence shows that he faces serious risks of severe physical and psychological harm if an injunction is not obtained,” the judge wrote.
Cordellioné also suffers from depression and borderline personality disorder.
Doctors have evaluated the inmate to determine her need for surgery, which Young said is “medically necessary to alleviate the severe and debilitating symptoms of her gender dysphoria.”
“It is appropriate for the court to order at this time that this surgery be provided to him as soon as possible,” Young wrote.
“Today marks a significant victory for transgender people in Indiana prisons,” ACLU of Indiana Legal Director Ken Falk (pictured) said in a statement.
Young also said he was aware that finding a surgeon to perform the risky surgery on the inmate “could take time” since the state might have to hire a doctor who is not affiliated with the DOC.
While incarcerated at the Madison Correctional Industrial Facility, Cordellioné began identifying as transgender and began taking synthetic estrogen and an anti-androgen, spironolactone, which prevents male hormones from working, according to Reduxx.
Cordellioné has requested surgery to create a vagina, as well as breast implants, a brow lift and reduction, a tummy tuck, buttock implants, a uterus transplant, hair removal and wigs, according to Reduxx.
Despite the request for a complete makeover, Young only demands an orchiectomy, which removes the testicles, and a vaginoplasty, which constructs a vagina.
Cordellioné is also involved in another lawsuit as she identifies as Muslim and has sued because the prison chaplain denied her the hijab.
She is currently being held at New Castle Correctional Annex, a men’s prison. She is scheduled to be released from prison on August 27, 2026.
Cordellioné is seeking $150,000 in damages and the right to wear the hijab “anywhere she goes on the premises.”
“I informed her that I wear the hajib (sic) to cover my head and ears for modesty reasons, as I am a practicing trans woman,” Cordellioné explained in the complaint filed on November 30.
According to the lawsuit, the chaplain stated that Cordellioné’s stated religious preference was “Wiccan,” an Earth-centered pagan religion with a male god and moon goddess, not Islam.
Cordellioné was convicted of strangling her stepdaughter to death in September 2001.
The killer initially told police she found the victim in a crib and that the baby was vomiting out of her mouth. Cordellioné later admitted that the child was restless and that she had tried to calm her down.
It was later determined that the girl died from manual strangulation.
In 2002, Cordellioné was sentenced to 55 years in prison. She is currently held at the New Castle Correctional Annex, a men’s prison.
She is projected to be released from prison as early as Aug. 27, 2026, according to prison records.