CALIFORNIA- The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has announced that another inmate on death row at San Quentin has died from complications due to COVID-19. Michael Carey, 59, is the latest to die from the coronavirus at San Quentin. Carey was sentenced to death in 1996 in Los Angeles County for first-degree murder with special circumstances after killing Ernestine Campbell by stabbing her to death while she was tied up.
Yesterday two other condemned killers on death row also died from COVID-19.
- July, 3rd Scott Thomas Erskine, 57, and Manuel Machado Alvarez, 59.
- Erskine was on death row since 2004 for murdering of two young boys in San Diego.
- Machado was sentenced to death row in 1989 for rape and murder committed in Sacramento.
- June 29th, Richard Stitely, 71, was found dead in his cell and confirmed to have tested positive for COVID-19. He was sentenced to death row in 1990 for the rape and murder of a 47 year old woman in Los Angeles.
- July 1st, Joseph Cordova, 75, was also found dead in his cell and tested positive for COVID-19. He was sentenced to death in 2007 for the rape and murder of an eight year old girl in San Pablo.
According to the CDCR there are over 1,300 inmates at San Quentin that have tested positive for COVID-19 and 120 Corrections staff.
There remain 721 death row inmates. Governor Gavin Newsom has placed a moratorium on the death penalty, dismantling the gas chamber, vowing not to let any of the condemned inmates be killed as long as he’s governor despite California passing an initiative to keep the death penalty.
