New York Attorney General Letitia James says her Office of Special Investigation will recuse itself from further investigation of the correction officers related to the death of an inmate at Mid-State Correctional Facility in Oneida County, her office announced Thursday.

Messiah Nantwi, 22, was pronounced dead at Wynn Hospital in Utica on Saturday. The state attorney general's office had opened a preliminary assessment into the death. The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) placed 15 individuals on leave in connection to the incident. Mid-State Correctional  is located across the street from Marcy Correctional Facility, where authorities say the use of force by correction officers led to the death of Robert Brooks in December. Six prison workers have been charged with murder in that case.

Similar to the case with Brooks' death, the AG's office filed a motion in Onondaga County Supreme Court requesting to appoint a special prosecutor to take over the probe and the court has granted that motion. Also like the Brooks case, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick has been appointed as special prosecutor. Fitzpatrick, a registered Republican, was first elected Onondaga County DA in 1991 and was reelected to a ninth term in 2023.

As per a state law passed in 2020, the New York attorney general’s office is required to investigate any incident in which a member of law enforcement is reported to have caused the death of a person by act or omission. The office conducted standard checks as that law stipulates to obtain the video footage and identify the officers involved.

During the preliminary investigation, when the correction officers involved in the events preceding Nantwi’s death were identified, the AG's Office of Special Investigation confirmed that four of those corrections officers are defendants in other matters where they are or were represented by attorneys in the AG's Office's State Counsel Division. The conflict of interest is similar to the Brooks investigation.

The State Counsel Division will not be representing DOCCS or any corrections officers in the district attorney’s investigation, the AG's office said.

There have been seven deaths of incarcerated individuals across the state since the strike by correction officers began more than two weeks ago, according to DOCCS.