A 34-year-old man who was being held at a problem-plagued jail in Atlanta died after he was taken to a hospital. He was the fourth person to die in Fulton County custody in the span of a month.
A jail officer doing dinner rounds found Samuel Lawrence unresponsive in his cell at about 4:20 p.m. on Saturday, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday in a news release. Lawrence was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where he was declared dead.
The Fulton County Jail has been in the national spotlight recently. It’s where former President Donald Trump and the 18 people indicted along with him surrendered for booking last week on charges related to an alleged illegal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation into jail conditions in the county, citing violence, filthy conditions and the death last year of a man whose body was found covered in insects.
Lawrence had been arrested by Atlanta police and was booked into the main county jail on Dec. 26. He was charged with second-degree arson and had a bond set at $30,000.
