A man convicted of murder has been found dead at a South Carolina prison in what authorities say is an apparent hanging.

The Spartanburg Herald-Journal reports that 43-year-old Steven Roy Earley Jr. was pronounced dead early Tuesday at Tyger River Correctional Institution in the community of Enoree.

Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Cleveger says his agency was called to the prison before 3 a.m. that day because of the reported hanging. An autopsy is planned later this week.

State corrections officials said Earley was serving a 30-year sentence and had been transferred in 2016 to Tyger River, a medium-security prison for men.

Early's was the second prisoner death in days after another inmate died Sunday during an altercation at another correctional institution that left eight other inmates hospitalized, according to reports.