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Cooper, Dana Marie
Status: active
Profile written August 16, 2026
This profile reflects positional accountability — this individual held the leadership roles shown during the dates shown, during which the listed deaths or lawsuits occurred. Inclusion does not constitute a legal finding of personal culpability for any specific incident.
Tenure Summary
Dana Marie Cooper’s GDC employment records begin in 2020 with a correctional assistant superintendent posting, and state salary records list her as a correctional superintendent in calendar years 2021 and 2022. Her principal facility-lead posting was superintendent at Helms Facility from July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2022. GPS records attribute 12 deaths to Cooper’s leadership tenure, all at Helms Facility. No lawsuits naming Cooper as a defendant appear in GPS records, and there are no intel reports or news mentions tied to her tenures.What happened on their watch
Helms Facility — Superintendent, July 1, 2020–June 30, 2022
Cooper held the facility-lead superintendent role at Helms Facility when GPS records attribute 12 custody deaths to that facility. The decedents are: Eddie Jerry Fortner, 61, October 19, 2020; Thomas Larry Pyburn, 66, April 18, 2021; Richard Timothy Casper, 53, May 28, 2021; Jerry Wayne Kunstbeck, 59, June 6, 2021; Shirley Lyons, 63, October 14, 2021; Bryan Keith Mims, 48, October 24, 2021; Terry Michael Sykes, 60, November 1, 2021; Calvin Love, 57, November 4, 2021; Franklin Odell Cantrell, 64, November 10, 2021; Mitchell Lebron Dunn, 60, January 26, 2022; Kenneth Clyde, 65, February 25, 2022; and Walton Jerome Thomas, 56, June 26, 2022.Ten of the 12 deaths are coded under cause category 1. Six of those have DeKalb County Medical Examiner records describing natural manners: Dunn (lung cancer), Love (metastatic colon cancer; endocarditis), Sykes (lung cancer; squamous cell carcinoma of the neck), Mims (esophageal cancer metastasized to liver; admitted in septic shock after transport from the facility), Kunstbeck (metastatic rectal carcinoma), and Pyburn (pancreatic cancer). For Cantrell, Lyons, Casper, and Fortner, GPS records rely on GDC’s own “Natural” coding obtained through the UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project open-records dataset; no autopsy finding is attached. The remaining two decedents, Clyde and Thomas, are coded under cause category 6 with no notes in GPS records, and no cause determination is provided for them. Ages at death ranged from 48 to 66.
GPS records show no lawsuits filed against Cooper while she held the Helms superintendent role, and no intel reports or news mentions tied to the facility during that posting.
Sources
- GPS personnel and custodial mortality records for Dana Marie Cooper (personnel id 21952)
- Georgia Department of Corrections salary records, 2020–2022
- DeKalb County Medical Examiner records, including case numbers 21-0720, 21-1048, 21-2014, 21-2060, 21-2079, and 22-0216
- UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project custodial mortality dataset, GDC open-records coding for 2015–2021, used for natural-cause classifications for Cantrell, Lyons, Casper, and Fortner
Positions Held
| Title | Facility | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| CORRECTIONAL SUPERINTENDENT | 2021-01-01 → 2022-12-31 | |
| Superintendent | HELMS FACILITY | 2020-07-01 → 2022-06-30 |
| CORRECTIONAL ASST. SUPT | 2020-01-01 → 2020-12-31 |
Deaths attributed during tenure
12 people died at facilities under Cooper, Dana Marie's leadership.
| Date | Decedent | Age | Facility | Role at time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-06-26 | WALTON JEROME THOMAS | 56 | HELMS FACILITY | Superintendent |
| 2022-02-25 | KENNETH CLYDE | 65 | HELMS FACILITY | Superintendent |
| 2022-01-26 | MITCHELL LEBRON DUNN | 60 | HELMS FACILITY | Superintendent |
| 2021-11-10 | FRANKLIN ODELL CANTRELL | 64 | HELMS FACILITY | Superintendent |
| 2021-11-04 | CALVIN LOVE | 57 | HELMS FACILITY | Superintendent |
| 2021-11-01 | TERRY MICHAEL SYKES | 60 | HELMS FACILITY | Superintendent |
| 2021-10-24 | BRYAN KEITH MIMS | 48 | HELMS FACILITY | Superintendent |
| 2021-10-14 | SHIRLEY LYONS | 63 | HELMS FACILITY | Superintendent |
| 2021-06-06 | JERRY WAYNE KUNSTBECK | 59 | HELMS FACILITY | Superintendent |
| 2021-05-28 | RICHARD TIMOTHY CASPER | 53 | HELMS FACILITY | Superintendent |
| 2021-04-18 | THOMAS LARRY PYBURN | 66 | HELMS FACILITY | Superintendent |
| 2020-10-19 | EDDIE JERRY FORTNER | 61 | HELMS FACILITY | Superintendent |
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