A man convicted of manslaughter in Lowndes County has died in Mississippi Department of Corrections custody.
Omar Beard, 36, was pronounced dead at a Rankin County hospital at about 1 a.m. Wednesday, Rankin County Coroner David Ruth confirmed to The Dispatch. Ruth did not give a cause of death but said it “definitely” did not appear to be homicide.
Beard had been in custody at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Brandon. His death appears to be from natural causes, according to an MDOC press release. His body has been sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Pearl for autopsy, Ruth said.
Beard is the most recent MDOC inmate death since the end of December, when violence began breaking out in prisons, particularly the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, according to The Associated Press. The AP reports that at least 19 prisoners have died in that time, some of natural causes and some as a result of the violence.
Several federal lawsuits have been filed against MDOC, alleging the state’s prison system leaves prisoners in “abhorrent conditions” where their medical needs are routinely ignored. In the most recent lawsuit, filed Tuesday, attorneys are asking for a class-action suit to cover all current and future inmates at Parchman, The AP reported. The U.S. Justice Department announced earlier this month that its civil rights division will investigate Parchman and other state prisons.
Beard was one of three suspects to plead guilty in 2019 to the shooting death of Eddie Bankhead, 34, in 2011. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but his tentative release date was scheduled for October 2030, according to MDOC’s website.
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