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2 California death row inmates die; virus suspected

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — (AP) — Authorities say two more California death row inmates have died from apparent complications of the coronavirus in the midst of an outbreak that's infected 40% of inmates at San Quentin State Prison.

The corrections department says Scott Erskine and Manuel Machado Alvarez died Friday. Erskine was on death row for the 1993 murder of two boys, 9 and 13, in San Diego. Alvarez was there for a 1987 series of crimes that included rape, robbery, carjacking and murder in Sacramento.

There have now been two dozen deaths from COVID-19 in California’s prison system.

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