Two California death row inmates, including one convicted of killing two children, have died from what appear to be complications of the COVID-19 coronavirus disease, state officials said.
Scott Thomas Erskine, who was sentenced to death for killing two children, ages 13 and 9, in San Diego in 1993, and Manuel Machado Álvarez, who raped a woman and killed a man he attempted to rob in 1987, died on Friday, the state department of corrections said.
Erskine, 57, had been sentenced to death since 2004 and Álvarez, 59, since 1989.
When Erskine was sentenced to death for the murders in 2004, he was already serving a 70-year sentence for rape and other charges that were passed in 1994.
Erskine and Alvarez died in outside hospitals, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement.
Their deaths occurred on a day when there were more than 53,000 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the United States, according to NBC News counts.
There are 722 people on California death row, the corrections department said. But an inmate has not been executed in California since 2006, and in March 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, announced a suspension of executions. Prosecutors are still free to search for him.
An increase in coronavirus cases in several states has caused at least 19 states to roll back or pause reopening plans.
California has seen a spike in cases, and on Wednesday, Newsom ordered 19 counties, including Los Angeles and Santa Clara in Silicon Valley, to shut down indoor operations at restaurants, museums, bars, and other venues.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says on its website that more than 5,000 patients have been confirmed to have COVID-19, and of whom just over 2,600 are active cases of people in custody. There have been 24 deaths.
Statewide, more than 248,200 cases have been confirmed, and more than 6,263 deaths have been linked to the disease, according to the California Department of Public Health.
Health officials warned Californians not to meet with people outside their homes this July 4 weekend, to wear face masks when in public, and to stay away from others as ways to curb the spread of the disease. virus.
