NEWS (3/​21/​20): Pennsylvania — In a rare Saturday rul­ing, the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas has grant­ed an emer­gency motion filed on behalf of Pennsylvania death-row pris­on­er Walter Ogrod seek­ing his removal from state prison to obtain imme­di­ate test­ing and treat­ment for symp­toms of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Ogrod, who pros­e­cu­tors con­cede is ​“like­ly inno­cent,” had been expe­ri­enc­ing symp­toms of the coro­n­avirus, includ­ing a dry cough and a 106°F fever. The prison infir­mary had been treat­ing him with Tylenol and had moved him in and out of isolation.

In his emer­gency rul­ing, Judge Leon Tucker wrote that the pris­on’s ​“fail­ure to test and treat Mr. Ogrod for COVID-19 con­sti­tutes delib­er­ate indif­fer­ence to Mr. Ogrod’s seri­ous med­ical needs” in vio­la­tion of his state and fed­er­al con­sti­tu­tion­al rights to be free from cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. The court ordered that ​“the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections shall imme­di­ate­ly trans­fer Walter Ogrod … to an out­side hos­pi­tal that is equipped to pro­vide him with prop­er test­ing, care and treat­ment, includ­ing but not lim­it­ed to test­ing for COVID-19.”

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