Mentally ill inmate 'basically baked to death' in New York City jail

A 56-year-old homeless man died last month in a Rikers Island jail cell due to extreme heat, according to the Associated Press. Citing a handful of anonymous officials, the AP reports that Jerome Murdough — a mentally ill veteran who was locked up for trespassing in a Harlem stairwell to escape the February cold — was found dead in a cell that had been inadvertently overheated to at least 100 degrees.

"He basically baked to death," one of the officials told the AP. Murdough was reportedly taking anti-psychotic and anti-seizure medication, which may have made him more susceptible to the heat. There is as yet no official cause of death.

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