NJ Inmate’s Hunger Strike Reaches One Year

A 34-year-old prison inmate in Trenton, N.J., has been on a yearlong hunger strike in a dispute over a drug test.

State officials tell The Star-Ledger of Newark a hunger strike this long is extremely rare.

The lawyer for William Lecuyer says he has shrunk to 120 pounds and has trouble breathing. A court rejected a state request to force-feed him, citing his First Amendment rights.

The convicted armed robber refuses all solid food but has accepted some intravenous solutions.

Prison officials say he was punished for refusing to produce a urine sample when asked. Lecuyer says guards didn't follow procedures. He's protesting the prison's refusal to let him examine a log book he says will prove his case.

His attorney hopes to resolve the standoff without going to court.

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