Eight killers die of coronavirus on America's biggest death row

At least eight inmates on America's largest death row have died from suspected coronavirus. On Tuesday child killer John Beames, 67, became the latest to die at San Quentin state prison in California.

Troy Ashmus, 58, a child rapist and murderer, was pronounced dead the previous day. San Quentin houses 717 condemned inmates, more than any other jail in the United Sates by far.

The death row inmates are part of an overall prison population of nearly 4,000 at San Quentin, north of San Francisco.

There have been 2,041 coronavirus cases at the jail since the outbreak began, with more than half the inmates testing positive. A total of 244 prison workers have also contracted the virus.

Officials said 861 inmates have active infections, with 132 of those reported in the last two weeks.

It is California's oldest jail, having opened in 1852, and overcrowding has been blamed for the spread of the virus.

A San Quentin nurse said: "The whole place has barely held together by a hope and a prayer."

No death row inmates have been executed in California since 2006.

Last year, Gavin Newsom, the Democrat governor, issued a moratorium on death sentences being carried out, and closed the San Quentin execution chamber.

Some of those who have fallen victim to the virus had been on death row for decades.

Beames was sentenced to die in 1995 after being convicted of torturing and beating to death his girlfriend's 15-month-old daughter.

Manuel Machado Alvarez, 59, who also died of coronavirus, had been sentenced to execution in 1989 for stabbing a man in a shopping centre.

A spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said: "We have implemented extraordinary measures to protect staff, the incarcerated population, and the community at large."

That included sending in hundreds of additional staff and tens of thousands of additional pieces of personal protective equipment.

California has now overtaken New York as the US state with the most coronavirus cases.

There have been more than 421,000 cases in California, while New York has seen 413,500.