Terre Haute executioners test positive for COVID and prompt prisoners to SUE jail to halt upcoming executions because they are 'super-spreader events'
Executioners at a federal prison have tested positive for Covid as two prisoners launch a legal bid to halt upcoming death sentences claiming they are 'super-spreader events'.
Dozens of people traveled to a federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, for the execution of Orlando Hall on November 19.
Hall, 49, was executed for kidnapping, gang raping a 16-year-old girl, dousing her in gas and burying her alive 26 years ago.
At the time of his execution, around 75 incarcerated people and staff at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute had active cases of COVID-19, reports the HuffPost.
Dozens of people traveled to a federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, for the execution of Orlando Hall on November 19
As of Monday, over 200 incarcerated people and 21 staff are sick with coronavirus.
The Department of Justice has admitted that 'some' members of the execution team also tested positive after the execution. It did not elaborate further.
The government's admission was buried in a footnote of a court filing and highlights concerns many have had about the health risks for patients and prison staff of continuing with executions during the pandemic.
It comes after a lawsuit was filed by two prisoners at the jail.
Patrick R. Smith and Brandon S. Holm, neither of whom are on death row, are suing the government and calling on them to halt executions until the pandemic is over so their health is protected.
At the time, around 75 incarcerated people and staff at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute had active cases of COVID-19, reports the HuffPost (file image)
These graphs show how the number of inmates and staff with the virus shot up in November
Lawyers for the two men wrote that the government disclosure offered 'compelling evidence of the significant risk that conducting the scheduled executions will spread COVID-19 within FCC Terre Haute (and beyond).'
Lawyers, media, family and demonstrators gather for executions, making such occasions prime candidates for super-spreader events.
Hall's spiritual adviser Yusef Ahmed Nur had also tested positive for COVID-19 since his execution.
Hall is the eighth person to be put to death since the Trump administration restarted federal executions in July, ending a 17-year hiatus.
As of Monday, over 200 incarcerated people and 21 staff at the prison are sick with coronavirus
He is also thought to be the first person executed under an outgoing administration in over a century.
He was jailed for the 1994 murder of Lisa Rene in Texas.
Rene was kidnapped at gunpoint from her home by a group of men and taken to Arkansas where she was murdered as revenge for a botched $5,000 marijuana deal.