An inmate at the Arkansas Department of Correction's Cummins Unit died Tuesday evening after corrections officers found him unresponsive on the floor of his barracks, according to a news release.
Medical personnel performed emergency treatments on John Howell, 58, and transported him to the unit's infirmary. He was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m., approximately 15 minutes after an inmate alerted the officers to Howell's condition, the release said.
Howell is the second death at the Cummins Unit near Pine Bluff in less than a week. Christian Smith, 29, died last Friday.
The Arkansas State Police and the Arkansas Department of Correction will investigate the death, and the state Crime Laboratory will examine Howell's body, the release said.
Howell had been in prison for more than 20 years at the time of his death and was serving a life sentence without parole for a 1995 conviction for capital murder in Garland County.
Metro on 06/22/2018