Grayson died in custody. The Prisoner Review Board had already said no.

The lawyer spoke. The prison system did not. That is the first fact.

Daniel Fultz, who represented Sean Grayson at trial, said the former Sangamon County deputy died Sunday. NBC, citing Fultz, put it around noon. He was 32, six months into a 20-year sentence for second-degree murder in the July 6, 2024, killing of Sonya Massey, 36, in her kitchen after she called 911 about a prowler. Another deputy’s body camera recorded the shooting. Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Milhiser charged first-degree murder 11 days later. A jury returned second-degree in October 2025. Sentencing was 20 years in early 2026.

Capitol News Illinois, working from court records, reported Grayson’s colon cancer diagnosis in 2023, before the shooting, and later spread to liver and lungs. In May he asked for compassionate release under the Joe Coleman Act. The petition claimed Massey invited him in and attacked him with a pot of boiling water. Massey’s family opposed it. The Illinois Prisoner Review Board denied the request in late July. IDOC did not answer Capitol News Illinois on Sunday about the death. Print that gap. Do not fill it with a rumor.

This desk is not going to call a prison death a verdict, a mercy, or a score. Massey called for help and was shot in her home. Grayson was convicted, sentenced, denied medical release, and died in custody, according to his lawyer. The cause on the family’s statement is cancer. The cause on an IDOC form is not in this file. If the department puts one out, print it then.