In the US prison, located in the US state of Indiana, a hotbed of coronavirus infection emerged after the execution of 49-year-old Orlando Hall, reports the Daily Mail.
The man was sentenced to death for the fact that more than 25 years ago he abducted, raped and then killed a 16-year-old girl. Hall became the eighth inmate sentenced to death since July this year, when US President Donald Trump has resumed federal executions.
The publication says that people began to fall ill with COVID-19 en masse back in November, but this became known only after the statement of two prisoners. A lawsuit was filed against the US attorney general for non-compliance with security measures introduced during the pandemic.
The prisoners demanded to postpone the execution of the death sentence in prison until the epidemiological situation improves. It clarifies that none of those who filed the lawsuit were sentenced to death by injection.
As of December 7, more than 200 prisoners and 21 prison staff are infected.
In November it became known that The US Department of Justice has amended the rules for the implementation of the death penalty, expanding them. In particular, local authorities will be able to execute criminals convicted at the federal level not only by lethal injection, but also in a gas chamber, in an electric chair or by firing squad.
As of December 9, more than 68 million people infected with coronavirus were recorded in the world. There are only 1,560,117 deaths. In the United States, the largest number of infected people has been detected for the entire time – 15,248,865, and 285,000 deaths are also known.