SIOUX FALLS — A prosecutor apologized this week for the state’s failure to preserve evidence in a case involving an overdose death in a state prison.

The state of South Dakota wants to convict the inmate charged with providing the drugs, Manarion Fuse, of a crime that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life.

Fuse is accused of giving drugs to Anthony Richards, who died of a drug overdose in February at the South Dakota State Penitentiary’s Jameson Annex. Fuse, who appeared in court via video link on Tuesday, maintains his innocence.

During the hearing, Assistant Attorney General Ryan McFall told Minnehaha County Judge Jon Sogn that the state never measured the quantity of the drug present in Richards’ system before it concluded that he’d died by overdosing on it.

The prosec

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