HM Prison Maze However, the government immediately reverted to their previous stance, in the belief that the prisoners would not start another strike. Bobby Sands, the leader of the Provisional IRA prisoners, began a second action on 1 March 1981. Outside the prison, in a major publicity coup, Sands was nominated for Parliament and won the Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election. But the British government still resisted and on 5 May, after 66 days on hunger strike, Sands died. More than 100,000 people attended Sands' funeral in Belfast. Another nine hunger strikers (members of both the IRA and the INLA) died by the
2013 California prisoner hunger strike participating in the hunger strike. Judge Thelton E. Henderson granted the order the same day. By the time the order was put into effect, the number of participants in the strike had dropped exponentially. There was less than 200 prisoners still fasting, and numerous others had been hospitalized. There was only one fatality from the strike. Billy "Guero" Sell died on July 22, 2013 after requesting medical attention for seven days leading up to his death. The lawsuit, "Todd Ashker, et al., vs. Governor of the State of California, et al.," was brought by 10 Pelican Bay State Prison inmates