Death Row Inmate At San Quentin State Prison Dies

SAN QUENTIN, CA — A death row inmate at San Quentin State Prison died over the weekend at a hospital away from the prison in Marin County, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

John Abel, 75, had been in prison since 1992 on multiple armed robbery counts. In 1995, he was connected to a deadly January 1991 shooting at a Tustin bank. An Orange County jury sentenced Abel to death on Sept. 26, 1997 for first-degree murder during the commission of the Tustin robbery and for lying in wait.

Abel was declared dead at 10:25 a.m. Saturday at an outside hospital. The cause of his death is unknown pending the results of an autopsy. Foul play is not suspected, according to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

There are 728 people on death row in California, according to the state. Since 1978, when California reinstated capital punishment, 82 condemned inmates have died from natural causes, 27 have committed suicide, 13 have been executed in California, one was executed in Missouri, one was executed in Virginia, 14 have died from other causes and seven — including Abel — are pending a cause of death.