A man from Michigan, USA has died from Coronavirus after serving 44 years in prison and was just weeks away from his release.
The man named William Garrison aged 60, passed away on Monday, April 13, after being sent to the hospital. On Friday, Macomb Correctional Facility officials confirmed that a post-mortem test revealed that Garrison had contracted the deadly virus.
Garrison was sentenced at the age of 16 to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder in a 1976 shooting. Due to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2016 that mandatory life sentences for juveniles convicted of murder be applied retroactively, Garrison was resentenced in January and was offered parole in February.
According to reports, Garrison refused, saying that he wanted to serve the remainder of his sentence (about seven months) so that he would be able to walk completely free, without the need for parole.
Once the coronavirus began to unfold, officials once again offered Garrison parole, this time he accepted and the prison immediately issued his parole. Officials at the prison requested that the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office waive the mandatory 28-day waiting period, given the circumstances.
However, five days after officials requested Garrison’s release, before the prosecutor’s office responded, he died.
Prison globally have been seeking to reduce the population of those incarcerated due to the unique risks it poses to people in the facilities, which are often overcrowded and underserved and where access to health care leaves much to be desired.
