California inmate dies of unknown causes after 25 years on death row

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - A California inmate who spent 25 years on death row for the murder of a brain-damaged woman has died of unknown causes, making him the third condemned prisoner to die this year in a state that has not carried out an execution in nearly a decade. Raymond Edward Steele, 67, was found unresponsive in his cell in San Quentin prison and pronounced dead at about 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said. If his death is determined to be from natural causes, Steele's case is likely to add fuel to an ongoing controversy about the death penalty in the most populous U.S. state, where nearly 70 inmates have succumbed to old age and other ailments since 1978. The two other death row inmates who died this year passed away of natural causes. One was 70 years old and the other 54. Last year, a federal judge declared the state's use of capital punishment unconstitutional because inmates lingered on death row for years or even decades. Steele had been on death row since 1990, when he was convicted of the 1988 murder of Leann Thurman, who had suffered from brain damage since birth, the state said. Steele had previously been convicted of raping his aunt's neighbor and killing his 15-year-old babysitter by stabbing her eight times, the state said. The death penalty was voided in numerous states, including California, by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972, but many soon adopted sentencing reforms that met the high court's requirements. Among them was California, which reinstated its death penalty in 1978. But a lengthy appeals process, along with a lack of political pressure to carry out executions, has left California with more than 750 people on death row. Since the penalty was reinstated, 13 inmates have been executed, 24 have committed suicide and nearly 70 have died of natural causes, the state said. One was executed in Missouri. California has not put an inmate to death since 2006. (Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Eric Beech)