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Thread: Jeffrey Cameron Clark - Louisiana Death Row

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    Past crimes ruled inadmissible

    The judge scheduled to preside over the first-degree murder trials of five Angola inmates denied a prosecution motion Monday to give jurors information about the crimes that put the defendants behind bars.

    Retired Orleans Parish Judge Jerome M. Winsberg recently set a March 21 trial date for Robert G. Carley, 42, in the beating and stabbing death of Louisiana State Penitentiary security Capt. David C. Knapps, 49, during an escape attempt from the prison’s Camp D education building.

    Winsberg said prosecutors cannot tell the jury that Carley is serving a life sentence for second-degree murder from St. Bernard Parish.

    Jefferson Parish Assistant District Attorney Tommy Block, the lead prosecutor, argued Monday he should be allowed to present testimony that Carley was convicted of murder, sentenced to life in prison and legally confined at Angola when Knapps died.

    Block said the state is required to prove that Carley and the other four defendants are guilty of first-degree murder and should receive the death penalty because Knapps was killed while they were attempting to escape from their place of confinement.

    Block said state law allows him to use evidence of other crimes to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Carley is guilty of attempted aggravated escape.

    The state Supreme Court halted the July trial of Jeffrey Cameron Clark, 50, in Knapps’ death after Block argued in his opening statement that Clark’s defense team would try to minimize his participation in the slaying and argue that he had no specific intent to kill the officer.

    “They want felony murder. They want another life sentence,” Block told the jury picked in St. Tammany Parish for a trial in St. Francisville. The state Supreme Court held that the statement was prejudicial to Clark.

    In addition to Carley and Clark, a West Feliciana grand jury indicted Davis Mathis, 34; David Brown, 37; and Barry S. Edge, 50, in the slaying.

    Tommy Damico, one of Clark’s attorneys, told Winsberg Monday that Block was trying “the back door to getting in the background of my client.”

    Carley’s attorneys told the judge that allowing testimony about Carley’s St. Bernard Parish conviction would be highly prejudicial and said they would not stipulate that he is legally confined at Angola.

    Winsberg ruled that prosecutors may offer evidence to prove that Carley was legally confined at Angola when Knapps was killed and that he had not finished his sentence. The terms of his sentence or the crime may not be mentioned, however, the judge said.

    Evidence of other crimes is admissible during the penalty phase of a first-degree murder trial as the jury decides whether the death penalty or a life sentence is appropriate.

    Additional pre-trial motions will be heard Dec. 21 and Jan. 4, Winsberg said.

    Winsberg also announced that he will convene court on March 21 but jury selection will not begin until the following day in order to accommodate St. Tammany Parish’s court schedule.

    http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/lat...l?index=14&c=y

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    Judge in Angola trial will write jury questionnaire

    ST. FRANCISVILLE — The retired judge scheduled to preside over the March first-degree murder trial of Angola inmate Robert G. Carley told attorneys in the case Tuesday he will devise a questionnaire for potential trial jurors.

    Carley, 42, and four other inmates are accused in the stabbing and beating death of Louisiana State Penitentiary security officer Capt. David C. Knapps, 49, during an escape attempt on Dec. 28, 1999.

    Prosecutors, led by Assistant District Attorney Tommy Block, of Jefferson Parish, wanted to use a questionnaire utilized last year to get background information on possible jurors in St. Tammany Parish for the trial of co-defendant Jeffrey Cameron Clark.

    The attempt to try Clark, 50, ended in a mistrial, one of many delays in the case.

    The state is seeking the death penalty against the so-called “Angola Five.”

    Carley defense attorneys Tommy Thompson and Clayton M. Perkins objected to the questionnaire, which Thompson said was a “cookie-cutter” version of St. Tammany Parish’s standard jury questionnaire.

    The defense team submitted its own suggested list of questions, which the attorneys said were devised by a jury selection expert from Missouri.

    Block argued that the defense proposal — 92 questions over 24 pages — is “long, unduly burdensome and slanted toward the defense.”

    Thompson and Perkins offered to remove or alter some of the questions to which Block objected, but the prosecutor was not satisfied.

    Block argued that a jury questionnaire is supposed to expedite the jury selection process but the defense document would lengthen it.

    Retired Orleans Parish Judge Jerome M. Winsberg said he will submit a proposed questionnaire to both sides later this month and hear objections on Jan. 28.

    Jury selection in Carley’s case is scheduled to begin March 22. Defendant David Brown, 37, was scheduled for trial on May 2, but Winsberg granted a continuance on Dec. 13.

    Block said Clark’s trial is now set for May 2, and Brown’s will be held in July or August. Trial dates have not been set for defendants David Mathis, 34, and Barry S. Edge, 50.

    http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/112913779.html

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    Angola inmate’s defense says more research time needed

    ST. FRANCISVILLE — Defense attorneys kept pushing Friday for a delay in the scheduled March 23 trial of Robert G. Carley, one of five Angola inmates accused in the slaying of a prison officer more than 11 years ago.

    Carley faces a possible death sentence if convicted of first-degree murder in the beating and stabbing death of security Capt. David C. Knaps, 49, during a Dec. 28, 1999, escape attempt at Angola’s Camp D.

    Jury selection is scheduled to begin March 23 in Covington for a trial in St. Francisville.

    Attorneys picked a jury in July for the case against co-defendant Jeffrey Cameron Clark, but the attempt ended in a mistrial.

    Carley’s attorneys Tommy Thompson and Clayton M. Perkins said they and their experts have not had enough time to prepare for the penalty phase of Carley’s trial, should he be convicted as charged.

    Retired Orleans Parish Judge Jerome M. Winsberg set a Feb. 4 hearing on the defense motion to continue the trial.

    The defense attorneys say in their motion that their efforts to research Carley’s background require investigations of school, police and other types of records in other states.

    Carley, 42, is originally from New York.

    He was convicted of killing Robert J. Esposito in St. Bernard Parish during an Oct. 15, 1987, armed robbery.

    Thompson said experts in “penalty phase mitigation” will take the stand in the next hearing to explain why they cannot complete their work by the trial date.

    Thompson and Perkins have not identified their experts, and they won a state Supreme Court ruling earlier this week to have Winsberg consider their request for experts’ funding outside the presence of prosecutors.

    “Are we entitled to some forewarning about what we’re walking into?” prosecutor Mike Futtrell, of Jefferson Parish, wanted to know Friday, adding that the names of the possible witnesses have not been revealed.

    Thompson replied that the defense attorneys do not have to disclose the names or nature of their defense beyond what they provided Winsberg in a sealed document.

    “In the kingdom of the blind, we’re looking for at least one one-eyed man,” Winsberg said of the upcoming hearing.

    The motion for continuance says Carley would not have the assistance of effective counsel if the attorneys were aware of possible evidence that would save his life in the penalty phase and did not investigate it, even if the investigation did not reveal “blockbuster” evidence about the defendant’s life.

    Winsberg also handed down a 12-page questionnaire for potential jurors after the state and defense could not agree on the questions last month. He made a minor change in one of the 38 questions, but declined to include a number of suggested questions from Perkins and Thompson.

    http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/114...l?index=14&c=y

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    Judge orders prison to let inmate see attorneys

    A state judge ordered Louisiana State Penitentiary officials Thursday to allow defense attorneys to confer with inmate Jeffrey Cameron Clark in the month remaining before Clark's first-degree murder trial.

    Clark, 50, and four other Angola prisoners are accused in the Dec. 28, 1999, beating and stabbing death of prison security Capt. David C. Knapps, 49.

    Jury selection begins May 2 in Covington for Clark's trial, which will be moved to St. Francisville once a jury is seated. An attempt to try him in July ended in a mistrial.

    Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against the defendants.

    Joe Lotwick, one of Clark's attorneys, asked retired Orleans Parish Judge Jerome M. Winsberg Friday to hold a hearing on whether Angola Warden Burl Cain and Deputy Warden Darrel Vannoy should be held in contempt of court because an assistant warden blocked Lotwick's March 24 conference with Clark.

    Lotwick said he followed the established procedure to visit Clark at Angola's Death Row unit but was turned away at the facility by Assistant Warden Angie Norwood.

    He said Norwood told him that Vannoy had denied the visit because "not enough security" was available for a face-to-face meeting.

    "The court does not care to have a contempt hearing but wants the problems remedied," Winsberg said, directing Trish Foster, Angola's legal programs director, to relay his instructions to Cain and other top security officials.

    "I don't care to drive to Angola without accomplishing anything, as I did last Thursday," Lotwick told the judge, adding that, under a longstanding court order, Angola officials are to accommodate attorney visits to prepare for trial.

    Cain said later the prison had more attorney visits scheduled that day than "we had space for."

    "We will do better next time. We will re-arrange and make it work," Cain said.

    Thursday's hearings also revealed that recordings made of Clark and defendant Robert G. Carley's telephone calls from Angola include some calls to attorneys' offices.

    Prosecutors have said they plan to use some of Clark's recorded statements in his trial, but conversations between the defendants and their attorneys are off-limits to third parties.

    Prosecutor Tommy Block, of Jefferson Parish, said he discovered that compact discs of about 60 of Clark's calls include two that were made to telephone numbers at law offices.

    Block asked Winsberg to place the discs under seal in the official court record, but said he had not listened to the calls or read transcripts of the conversations.

    To avoid future problems, Block said, he has engaged a "clean team" from the office of former Assistant U.S. Attorney Al Winters, of New Orleans, to review the transcripts of inmate calls before they are delivered to prosecutors.

    Tommy Damico, who also represents Clark, did not object to the arrangement, but Tommy Thompson, representing Carley, objected to "anyone representing the state" listening to the recordings or reading the transcripts.

    Winsberg overruled the objection.

    The judge said he is considering July 25 or Aug. 8 for the start of Carley's trial, with a jury possibly chosen in Baton Rouge, Lafayette or New Orleans, rather than in St. Tammany Parish.

    http://www.westport-news.com/default...ys-1318383.php

  5. #5
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    I've read a few articles about Burt Cain and he seems like an excellent warden.

    I can't see any other sentence being issued in this case other than death.
    They murdered a prison guard in heavily conservative Louisiana.
    Oh they are so in trouble.

    I do wish cases like this wouldn't exist. It makes my life as an anti that bit harder.

  6. #6
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    State judge rules Angola inmate can defend himself in murder trial

    The judge in the Jeffrey Cameron Clark murder trial has ruled that the 50-year-old Angola inmate has the right to represent himself.

    Clark is one of five prisoners accused of first-degree murder in the Dec. 28, 1999, slaying of security Capt. David Knapps during an escape attempt at Louisiana State Penitentiary's Camp D.

    Retired Orleans Parish Judge Jerome M. Winsberg questioned Clark at length Wednesday to determine if he understood the implications of acting as his own attorney in a trial in which prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

    The Advocate reports questionnaires will be given to potential jurors Thursday in Covington, and jury selection is tentatively set for Tuesday. The trial will be held in St. Francisville.

    http://www.therepublic.com/view/stor...--Angola-Five/

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    11 jurors selected in Angola 5 trial

    Attorneys in the Jeffrey Cameron Clark first-degree murder trial selected 11 potential jurors by Friday afternoon and planned to work into the night to complete the panel for the trial’s opening remarks on Saturday or possibly Sunday.

    Clark, 50, is one of five Angola inmates facing trial in the Dec. 28, 1999, beating death of Louisiana State Penitentiary security Capt. David Knaps, 49.

    Prosecutors and defense attorneys pared down the list of potential jurors to 11 late Friday afternoon and began questioning another 20 St. Tammany Parish residents who survived the first round of questioning concerning their feelings toward the death penalty, which prosecutors are seeking against Clark.

    Twelve jurors and four alternates are needed for the trial, which will be held in St. Francisville.

    The 11 selected after questioning Friday morning and afternoon are not guaranteed a seat in the jury box, however. Some could be removed through “backstrikes” if the defense and prosecution have peremptory challenges remaining after the panel is filled.

    Clark is acting as his own attorney in the trial, with assistance from court-appointed attorneys Tommy Damico and Joe Lotwick, but Damico questioned the jurors Friday.

    Retired District Judge Jerome M. Winsberg, of Orleans Parish, is hearing the case.

    Winsberg said he wanted the jurors and alternates to be housed Friday night in a St. Tammany Parish motel and transported to St. Francisville on Saturday.

    The trial is expected to last at least two weeks, attorneys said during their questioning of the jurors.

    Clark is serving a life sentence for the October 1984 shooting death of Andrew Cheswick, an assistant manager of an Airline Highway lounge.

    Attorneys on both sides are trying to skirt the issue of whether Clark is serving a sentence at Angola, although jurors have been told he was an inmate in 1999 when the crime occurred.

    Prosecutor Tommy Block’s statement that Clark’s defense team “wanted another life sentence” rather than the death penalty caused a mistrial when Clark went on trial in July.

    http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/lat...a-5-trial.html

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    Testimony continues in guard's beating death

    A correctional officer taken hostage by Louisiana State Penitentiary inmates trying to escape in 1999 told a jury that Jeffrey Cameron Clark did not try to free her or prevent anyone from harming her.

    Sgt. Reddia M. Walker, who is now employed at Dixon Correctional Institute, became the first witness Sunday in Clark's first-degree murder trial, which continued Monday.

    Walker said she asked Clark to let her go, but he replied, "No, we can't do that."

    Clark and four other Angola inmates are accused in the stabbing and beating death of Capt. David C. Knapps, 49, the night of Dec. 28, 1999, during an escape attempt from Angola's Camp D.

    The state is seeking the death penalty against Clark, who is acting as his own lawyer with the assistance of court-appointed attorneys Tommy Damico and Joe Lotwick.

    Clark told the jury, chosen in St. Tammany Parish, during his opening statement that he tried to protect Walker and attempted to persuade the others to free her.

    Also on Sunday, former Angola Deputy Warden Paul Perkins said he and Knapps grew up together at Angola and he considered Knapps a friend but did not recognize him when officers found his badly beaten body in a blood-soaked restroom in the Camp D Educational Building.

    "I got a good look at him because you could hardly recognize him," Perkins replied when Clark asked him why he went into the restroom.

    Part of Clark's defense is that the crime scene was compromised by people walking in the area where Knapps was killed.

    Perkins and former Corrections Secretary Richard Stalder testified they tried to end the hostage situation peacefully until they saw Knapps' body in the restroom.

    "We knew at that point we had a very dangerous situation with Sgt. Walker," Stalder said.

    "We knew it was time to resolve it," Perkins said.

    The three witnesses Sunday said Warden Burl Cain, at the time, was talking with inmates Joel Durham and David Mathis, who were holding Walker inside a "bundle room" where inmate property is stored.

    Walker said Cain's attempt to talk them into opening the door ended when one inmate yelled, "Y'all ain't going to let us go back to our dorms after you see what they did down in the bathroom."

    "It got real quiet," Walker said.

    Two members of the prison's tactical team entered the room and shot the two inmates, fatally wounding Durham, 26. Although shot in the face, Mathis, now 34, survived and also faces a first-degree murder charge.

    http://www.timesunion.com/news/artic...#ixzz1LrYLe2E4

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    Inmate convicted in guard's 1999 slaying

    ST. FRANCISVILLE, La. (AP) - A jury in St. Francisville has convicted a Louisiana State Penitentiary prisoner of first-degree murder in the 1999 slaying of a security officer.

    The penalty phase of the trial, in which jurors will decide whether Jeffrey Cameron Clark should be sentenced to death, will begin Monday. Clark is already serving a life sentence for another murder.

    Clark was charged in the beating and stabbing death of 49-year-old Capt. David C. Knapps, during an escape attempt from the prison at Angola.

    Clark, who acted as his own attorney, claimed he only joined other inmates in the escape attempt at the last minute after being assured nobody would be hurt. Prosecutor Tommy Block told jurors it was Clark's fifth version of how the crime occurred. Clark was convicted Sunday.

    http://www.bayoubuzz.com/Louisiana-N...9-slaying.html

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    Jury votes death penalty for man convicted in prison guard's slaying

    ST. FRANCISVILLE, La. — The jury in the Jeffrey Cameron Clark murder trial has decided that he should be put to death for killing a Louisiana State Penitentiary security officer more than 11 years ago.

    The Advocate reports that the seven men and five women, who were chosen in St. Tammany Parish to hear the case, deliberated about 33 minutes Monday before returning the unanimous recommendation to presiding Judge Jerome M. Winsberg.

    Clark, now 50, was convicted Sunday of first-degree murder in the slaying of Capt. David C. Knapps during an escape attempt from the prison's Camp D Education Building on Dec. 28, 1999. He is already serving a life sentence for murdering a Baton Rouge lounge employee in October 1984.

    Four other inmates face first-degree murder trials in the slaying.

    http://www.therepublic.com/view/stor...rison-Slaying/

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