For the second time in three months, the office of New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, said it was recusing itself from investigating the death of a prisoner whom other inmates said was brutally beaten by guards.
As occurred in the case of the earlier death, a special prosecutor will take over the inquiry into the death of Messiah Nantwi, 22, who died last week after being held at Mid-State Correctional Facility in central New York, Ms. James’s office said in a statement on Thursday.
The statement said the recusal was necessary because lawyers in her office were already defending four of the 15 corrections employees involved in the events that preceded the death in unrelated civil lawsuits.
Ms. James appointed William J. Fitzpatrick, the Onondaga County district attorney, as the special prosecutor. Just last month, Mr. Fitzpatrick brought charges against 10 officers in connection to the killing of another prisoner, Robert L. Brooks. Six of the officers were charged with murder.
This is a developing story and will be updated.