San Quentin Death Row Inmate Dies of Natural Causes Awaiting Execution

An inmate on Death Row since 1989 for a 1986 Riverside County murder conviction died Friday of natural causes, San Quentin State Prison officials said Thursday.

Ronald Harold Seaton, 69, was pronounced dead at Marin General Hospital, but the announcement was withheld pending notification of his next of kin, officials said.

Seaton was sentenced to death on July 27, 1989 in connection with the 1986 murder of Willis Paul Jones during a robbery and burglary in Jones’ home.

While the prison has seen a recent outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease, officials said there is nothing to indicate it was a factor in Seaton’s death. His cause of death will be determined by the Marin County coroner’s office.

A total of 69 inmates on Death Row have died of natural causes since 1978 when California reinstated the death penalty, prison officials said. Another 24 have committed suicide and eight died of other causes, while the cause of death in one case is pending.

In that time, only 13 inmates have been executed in California, and one was executed in Missouri.

There are 747 inmates currently on Death Row.

--Bay City News Service, photo courtesy of the California Department of Corrections