US prison guards cut off the water to Terrill Thomas’ cell. Seven ‘torturous’ days later he died of thirst

Shortly after Terrill Thomas was put in solitary confinement, US prison guards deemed him too noisy and cut off his water supply.

A week later the 38-year-old mentally ill black man was found dead on his cell’s concrete floor.

The stunning details of Thomas’ dehydration death have sparked national outrage in a country with an already controversial criminal justice system.

Thomas died on April 24, 2016, but it took a year before an independent jury examined the circumstances of his final days.

On Monday, after two hours of deliberation, six jurors found probable cause to file criminal charges against seven officials at the county jail in Milwaukee, the largest city in the midwestern state of Wisconsin.

The hearings prior to juror deliberation lent new insight into the case of Thomas, who had bipolar disorder and a history of erratic behaviour.