Idaho inmate on death row dies

BOISE – A prisoner who has been on Idaho’s death row since 2001 died Wednesday after an extended illness, the Department of Correction said.

Michael Allen Jauhola had been on death row at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution since 2001, when he was sentenced for the 1998 murder of a fellow inmate. He was moved to the prison’s medical unit in May.

Idaho Department of Correction spokeswoman Teresa Jones said Jauhola’s death was expected because of his illness, and the 41-year-old was under the care of a doctor when he died. She said she could not release the nature of his illness because of federal health care privacy rules.

Jones said the Ada County coroner will perform an autopsy to verify the cause of death.

Jauhola was sent to death row in 2001 for beating to death a fellow inmate while he was serving time for voluntary manslaughter and escape.

Jauhola was born in Anchorage, Alaska, but was living in Canyon County in 1993 when he was convicted of voluntary manslaughter after prosecutors said he stabbed a rival gang member to death. While awaiting sentencing on that conviction, he escaped from the Canyon County Jail and was sentenced in 1994 to 17 years for both offenses.

Five years later, Jauhola was convicted of beating a fellow inmate to death with a baseball bat in the exercise yard at the maximum security prison.