PENNSYLVANIA — A 57-year-old man serving a life sentence for murder was found dead Friday at a federal prison in Wayne County, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Officials said Robert James Turner was found unresponsive at approximately 4:05 p.m. Friday at the United States Penitentiary, Canaan, a high-security federal prison located near Waymart.
Emergency medical services responded and pronounced Turner dead shortly thereafter. Authorities did not release details about where inside the facility Turner was found or the cause of death.
The penitentiary notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a standard procedure when an inmate death occurs at a federal facility.
According to federal court records, Turner had been incarcerated for nearly 30 years. A jury in Virginia convicted him in 1997 of first-degree murder and possession of a weapon for the 1995 stabbing death of Joseph Daniels while the two men were incarcerated together in Washington, D.C.
Turner had been housed at the Canaan facility since March 17. He appealed his conviction, but in 2023 the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case. The circumstances surrounding Turner’s death remain under review.
