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A man who died in a Rikers Island jail on Sunday appeared to have been lying dead in his cell for hours before correction staff members discovered his body, according to two people familiar with the incident. The man, Elijah Muhammad, was already showing signs of rigor mortis, the people said — a condition that begins to set in at least two hours after death. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details of the case. It was not clear exactly how long Mr. Muhammad, who appeared to have suffered a drug overdose, had lain dead before he was discovered, but the delay prompted the immediate firing of one rookie correction officer and the suspensions of others, one of the people said. At a meeting on Tuesday of the New York City Board of Correction, a jail oversight panel, board members held up the death as evidence that city leaders still have not stemmed a crisis of violence and disorder on Rikers Island despite repeated pledges to enact reforms.
