Death row prisoner killed 'by fellow inmate' at San Quentin in California

‘It's not supposed to happen’ says prison expert, following first death row murder in 20 years

Luis Rodriguez (left) is suspected of killing Jonathan Fajardo (right) (AP)

A prisoner has killed a fellow inmate on death row at San Quentin State Prison in California.

It is the first murder of a condemned inmate in the US in more than 20 years, according to officials.

Jonathan Fajardo, 30, was stabbed in the chest and neck with a makeshift weapon in the recreational yard at San Quentin, said corrections department spokesperson Terry Thornton.

Luis Rodriguez, 34, was named as the alleged murder suspect. Investigators are trying to determine a motive and how the suspect was able to obtain or make the weapon.

Prison killings are common in California but rare on death row – the last one occurred in 1997.

“It’s very unusual,” said San Francisco State University associate professor Amy Smith, who studies capital punishment and the psychological impacts of death row. “It’s not supposed to happen, of course.”

Every inmate on death row is housed separately but most are allowed to congregate in small groups in the exercise yard, where Mr Fajardo was killed.

Ms Smith said: “Folks who are on ‘the row’ generally have the lowest levels of prison violence, even though it would seem that they might do anything because they have the worst penalty.

“In fact, they actually have very, very low incidences of violence in prison.”

Mr Fajardo was awaiting execution on two counts of murder in Los Angeles County, having received seven life sentences.

He was identified as a Latino gang member who killed a 14-year-old black girl in a racially motivated shooting. He was also condemned for stabbing a man who was killed because fellow gang members believed he might be cooperating with police, according to prosecutors.

Mr Rodriguez is awaiting execution on two counts of murder. Local media reports identified him as a member of a Latino gang convicted of killing two men from a rival gang. He was already suspected of another murder that resulted in a life sentence.

No one has been executed in California since 2006, though state voters backed a measure to speed up capital punishment in 2016.

More condemned inmates in California – the nation's largest death row – have died of natural causes or suicide than have been executed since capital punishment was reinstated in 1978.

Additional reporting by Associated Press