David Moreland had long expected to die in prison. But when the coronavirus nearly killed him in 2020, it was that brush with death that ended up freeing him. “This is how God works,” Moreland, 67, said from his cozy living room at a subsidized apartment complex for seniors in Long Beach. When Moreland contracted COVID before vaccines were available, he said his oxygen levels were so low that a doctor was preparing to hook him to a ventilator.