Prisoner dies 12 days after Pennsylvania judge granted compassionate release for health reasons
Associated Press, 06/04/24: “A Pennsylvania man who had been serving life for second-degree murder died over the weekend, 12 days after being granted a medical transfer from prison to a facility that could better treat his condition, including quadriplegia.
Ezra Bozeman, 68, died on Saturday at the UPMC Altoona medical center, Ryan Tarkowski, communications director for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, confirmed on Tuesday.
He had been jailed for 49 years before an Allegheny County judge granted his request for compassionate release last month.
Bozeman had been on life support. He had a back injury that had been misdiagnosed for several years, according to his lawyer, Dolly Prabhu, and he required extensive medical care after he became paralyzed from the chest down after surgery.
An email seeking comment was left with the office of Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala, which had opposed the release.
Prabhu, with the Abolitionist Law Center, described Bozeman as ‘the sweetest, sweetest person.’
‘He was always, always so optimistic,’ Prabhu said Tuesday. ‘And he was confident that it wasn’t a matter of if he gets out, it was when he gets out.’”