A prisoner who died at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman has been identified as a man convicted of statutory rape in Lowndes County more than 10 years ago.
Paul Joseph Capps, 70, died Thursday at the hospital in Parchman, according to a Mississippi Department of Corrections press release. Officials did not release his identity until Monday while they attempted to notify his family. His body has been sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Pearl for an autopsy.
Capps was one of two prisoners who died at Parchman last week, but Sunflower County Coroner Heather Burton said there was no “evidence of foul play” in either death, according to The Associated Press.
Capps is the second Lowndes County man and one of at least 21 MDOC inmates to die in custody since late December, when violence began breaking out in Parchman. Some of the deaths were due to natural causes and others homicide, according to The AP and MDOC officials.
Omar Beard, 36, of Columbus, died at a Rankin County hospital Wednesday. He was in custody at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Brandon for manslaughter. Rankin County Coroner David Ruth also said Beard’s death did not appear to be homicide.
Since the deaths began, 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 last week, 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.
Capps was convicted of statutory rape in Lowndes County in 2008 and was sentenced to 20 years in MDOC.
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