Bobby Neil McFalls died Wednesday at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, the department said in a news release Thursday. Photo courtesy MDOC

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Department of Corrections says a 64-year-old inmate who was serving a life sentence for a murder conviction has died after being hospitalized since May.

Bobby Neil McFalls died Wednesday at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, the department said in a news release Thursday. The Sunflower County coroner said McFalls had been treated for a terminal illness, but the release did not specify what that was. An autopsy will be done.

McFalls was at least the 51st Mississippi inmate to die since late December. Several inmates died during outbursts of violence in late December and early January. The U.S. Justice Department announced in February that it is investigating Mississippi’s prison system.

McFalls was serving life for murder and seven years for residential burglary, which were committed 1975 in Harrison County. He had been paroled three times since his initial sentence on Oct. 21, 1976, for the burglary. He last returned to prison in July 2002.