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Thread: Jessie Con-Ui Sentenced to LWOP by Federal Jury in 2011 PA Slaying of Federal Prison Guard Eric Williams

  1. #21
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Federal prosecutors continue to oppose removal of death penalty in case of Eric Williams’ murder

    WILKES-BARRE — Federal prosecutors in the capital murder case of Jessie Con-Ui reiterated their opposition to a recent motion from the defense that seeks to have the death penalty taken off the table due to its alleged unconstitutionality, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

    Con-Ui, 37, faces the death penalty in the murder of 34-year-old Corrections Officer Eric J. Williams, a Nanticoke native, at U.S. Penitentiary Canaan on Feb. 25, 2013.

    Prosecutors claim Con-Ui ambushed and then kicked Williams down a flight of stairs before pinning him down, throwing his radio aside and stabbing him more than 200 times with multiple homemade shanks.

    Con-Ui was at Canaan serving an 11-year prison sentence stemming from a 2003 guilty plea for his role in a drug ring run by the New Mexican Mafia. Following that sentence, he was set to begin serving a life sentence after pleading guilty in 2008 to first-degree murder.

    On Oct. 6, Con-Ui’s attorneys filed a 168-page motion requesting U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo strike the prosecution’s attempt to seek the death penalty on several fronts, claiming among them the punishment is “carried out in an arbitrary and capricious manner that is akin to being struck by lighting.”

    In a 92-page response, prosecutors in November called Con-Ui’s motion nothing more than a “‘boiler plate’ assault on the (Federal Death Penalty Act).”

    “As will become self-evident, all of defendant’s arguments are afflicted by the same basic and fatal flaw, that is, they are in opposition with longstanding legal principles and overwhelming authority to the contrary,” prosecutors argued, citing several Supreme Court and federal cases that upheld the death penalty.

    In further support of its motion, Con-Ui’s defense replied to the prosecution’s response and claimed for the first time the court should strike multiple aggravating factors for capital punishment.

    The factors include the non-statutory aggravating factor of future dangerousness, the statutory aggravating factor of “especially heinous, cruel or depraved manner of committing the offense” and the non-statutory aggravating factor of victim impact.

    On Wednesday, prosecutors maintained their stance behind proven legal outcomes that have long upheld the use of the death penalty in past capital cases.

    “The Supreme Court and numerous other federal courts have repeatedly upheld the use of these aggravating factors in capital cases and, therefore, the defendant’s request to strike the specified aggravating factors should be summarily denied,” prosecutors argued.

    Prosecutors asserted the defendant “failed to cite any federal case that supports his request, and instead cites law review articles, studies and an expert opinion.”

    According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Con-Ui is currently being held at ADX Florence, a supermaximum U.S. prison in Colorado known for housing notorious criminals as well as inmates that have a history of violence against corrections officers and fellow inmates.

    A hearing on the motion to strike the death penalty is scheduled for next week at the federal courthouse in Wilkes-Barre.

    Con-Ui is scheduled to be tried for Williams’ death in July.

    http://timesleader.com/news/501754/f...illiams-murder

  2. #22
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Con-ui’s defense argues death penalty is unconstitutional

    The defense for gang assassin Jessie Con-ui argued in court Wednesday morning that a district judge should throw out the federal death penalty, finding it unconstitutional because there is “no rhyme or reason” to how it is implemented.

    Con-ui, 38, is slated to stand trial in July on charges alleging he kicked correctional officer Eric Williams, a Nanticoke native, down a flight of stairs at U.S. Penitentiary Canaan before beating and slashing him to death with two shanks on Feb. 25, 2013. According to prosecutors, Con-ui — who is already serving 25 years to life for a 2002 murder — was caught on surveillance video during the attack.

    He appeared at the hearing by video from U.S. Penitentiary Florence in Arizona, wearing an orange jumpsuit. He did not address the court.

    During arguments in federal court Wednesday morning, Montclaire, New Jersey-based defense attorney David A. Ruhnke argued that evolving standards of decency in the community warrant the death penalty being struck down as unconstitutional. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the law, the way it has been carried out in recent years makes it ripe for reconsideration, he said.

    “State after state after state is repealing their capital punishment,” Ruhnke said. “Things are evolving for sure in the area of capital punishment.”

    There are currently 60 inmates awaiting execution in the federal system, but since the federal death penalty was restored in 1988 there have been only three executions — and none since 2003, Ruhnke argued. Some inmates have been on death row for more than 20 years, showing the punishment is not being carried out, he said.

    “The federal death penalty is essentially fading away,” he said.

    Ruhnke pointed to the “arbitrary” nature of the death penalty’s implementation based on region, noting that in Texas 66 percent of death row cases result in a death sentence, compared to 8 percent in New York. About two percent of counties account for most death penalty cases, most of them in the south, he said.

    U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo cut in and asked if the evolving standards of decency argument considered the beliefs of southerners.

    “You talk about evolving societal standards. Are we including those states in the society?” Caputo asked.

    “Even states like Texas and other Southern states, there’s a precipitous decline,” Ruhnke said.

    The defense attorney also noted the huge disparity in the death penalty’s implementation along racial lines, noting that about 75 percent of those targeted for capital punishment are minorities.

    Con-ui, who is an American citizen of Filipino descent, falls into that category, he said.

    The U.S. Attorney’s Office was expected to offer its arguments this afternoon.

    Con-ui has expressed an interest in a plea bargain in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table, but prosecutors have refused to do so.

    As a result, his defense has been seeking to have aggravating factors that could result in a death sentence upon conviction stricken from the case. He was also seeking to have Caputo declare the federal death penalty entirely unconstitutional on grounds that the standards of society have changed since the Federal Death Penalty Act was enacted and that the punishment has been implemented in an “arbitrary, capricious, irrational and invidious manner.”

    Prosecutors responded that the death penalty is appropriate in the case because of aggravating factors including future dangerousness, that the alleged crime was committed in an “especially heinous, cruel or depraved manner,” and victim impact. The defense, prosecutors argued, has failed to cite any case law to back up the assertion that those factors should be removed from consideration.

    And the argument that the entire death penalty should be declared unconstitutional amounts to little more than a “boiler plate” assault on a well-established federal law, they argued.

    Con-ui’s trial is scheduled to begin with jury selection on July 11.

    http://citizensvoice.com/news/con-ui...onal-1.1994887
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  3. #23
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    Judge: Prosecution can seek death penalty for Con-ui

    WILKES-BARRE — The federal death penalty is indeed constitutional and can be sought against drug dealing gang assassin Jessie Con-ui as he faces trial for brutally murdering a correctional officer, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

    Con-ui, 39, is slated to stand trial in September on charges alleging he kicked correctional officer Eric Williams, a Nanticoke native, down a flight of stairs before beating and slashing him to death with two shanks on Feb. 25, 2013. According to prosecutors, Con-ui — who is already serving 25 years to life for a 2002 murder — was caught on surveillance video during the attack.

    Although Con-ui has expressed interest in pleading guilty if prosecutors drop the death penalty, which Williams’ family supports, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has refused to do so.

    As a result, his defense had sought to remove aggravating factors that could result in Con-ui being sentenced to death stricken, as well as having the death penalty ruled unconstitutional in its entirety because they alleged it has been implemented in an “arbitrary, capricious, irrational and invidious manner” and evolving standards of decency have changed society’s take on capital punishment.

    In his ruling Thursday, U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo upheld the federal death penalty, noting that its legality has long been debated and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

    Changing standards of decency have resulted in capital punishment being declared unconstitutional for minors and the mentally disabled, but it has been upheld in other cases, he said.

    “I am bound by the Supreme Court’s determination that, but for juveniles and the intellectually disabled, the death penalty does not violate the Constitution,” Caputo wrote. “And, in any event, I do not find that societal standards of decency have, in the past several months, evolved to the point where the death penalty should be declared unconstitutional in this case.”

    Williams’ father Don expressed satisfaction with Caputo’s ruling.

    “Our family sat in court for the hearing. We were hoping he would uphold the constitutionality of it being a death penalty case,” he said. “It’s as it should be. It’s constitutional and I feel the judge ruled correctly.”

    Caputo did grant defense requests for information about how the government plans to establish the death penalty is warranted, but also rule prosecutors would be able to use evidence not in the outlines at trial.

    Con-ui’s trial had been set for July but it was pushed back earlier this month to September.

    He remains imprisoned at ADX Florence in Arizona, where he is serving 25 years to life for a 2002 murder.

    http://citizensvoice.com/news/judge-...n-ui-1.2000953

  4. #24
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Prosecutors drop death penalty arguments opposed by Con-ui’s defense

    WILKES-BARRE — Prosecutors have withdrawn part of a set of legal arguments they’re relying upon in their pursuit of the death penalty against a violent gang member accused of viciously murdering a federal corrections officer.

    According to an amended notice filed Friday in federal court, prosecutors withdrew future dangerousness, lack of remorse and low rehabilitative potential from a list of non-statutory aggravating factors they argue justify putting Jessie Con-ui to death.

    Future dangerousness, or whether the defendant poses a continuing threat to the lives and safety of others, was included among three aggravating factors defense attorneys sought to strike in an October court filing that also argued against the practicality of the death penalty.

    U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo upheld the use of the punishment in a Jan. 28 decision.

    Six statutory aggravating factors, or factors related to a formal law, remained unchanged from a prior notice to seek the death penalty filed Oct. 2, 2014. The non-statutory factors that remain intact in Friday’s filing include victim impact and participation in additional uncharged serious acts of violence.

    It was unclear Friday what prompted the amended notice. Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa did not immediately return a request for comment Friday.

    Con-ui, 39, is slated to stand trial in September on charges he murdered corrections officer Eric J. Williams at U.S. Penitentiary Canaan in Wayne County in 2013. Williams, a 2003 King’s College graduate, was 24.

    Out of the Nanticoke native’s death came the Eric Williams Correctional Officer Protection Act. Signed into law March 10 by President Barack Obama, the act allows federal corrections officer to carry non-lethal pepper spray.

    Prosecutors claim Con-ui ambushed the unarmed guard as he ascended a staircase inside the prison. The inmate then kicked him down the flight of stairs before beating and stabbing him to death, prosecutors allege. They say Con-ui tossed Williams’ radio aside in an attempt to keep him from calling for help.

    A New Mexican Mafia gang member with a chilling past, Con-ui was serving an 11-year prison sentence at Canaan on drug charges.

    Following that sentence, he was set to begin serving life in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder. Prosecutors allege Con-ui in 2008 baited friend and fellow gang member Carlos Garcia into meeting him at an Arizona laundromat where two men ambushed and shot him.

    Con-ui allegedly agreed to or participated in several separate, uncharged incidents while jailed between 1999 and 2010, including stabbing another inmate with a homemade knife and assaulting another inmate with a metal food tray, according to prosecutors.

    Prosecutors allege that while out of jail in 2013, Con-ui conspired in the planned murder of a law enforcement officer but was arrested before the scheme could be carried out.

    Con-ui remains jailed at ADX Florence, a super-maximum federal prison in Fremont County, Colorado, nicknamed the “Alcatraz of the Rockies.” He is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree murder of a federal corrections officer and possessing contraband in prison.

    http://timesleader.com/news/525031/c...-sought-struck

  5. #25
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Fact's Avatar
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    Smart move by the United States to withdraw the future dangerousness aggravator, because based on Third Circuit precedent established in Robinson v. Beard, absent an argument about the inmate's future dangerousness, the jury is not required to be instructed about the defendant's ineligibility for parole if sentenced to life in prison.

  6. #26
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    August 5, 2016

    Partial victory for defense team of inmate accused of killing Pa. CO

    Jesse Con-ui is accused of stabbing CO Eric Williams at U.S. Penitentiary at Canaan in 2013.

    WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — The gang assassin accused of murdering a correctional officer at U.S. Penitentiary at Canaan won a partial victory Thursday when a federal judge ruled his defense will have access to additional discovery information.

    Con-ui is awaiting trial over the Feb. 25, 2013, stabbing death of Nanticoke native Eric Williams, a federal correctional officer who died after being kicked down a flight of stairs, then beaten and slashed with two shanks.

    His attorneys have not disputed that Con-ui was responsible for the slaying, which was caught on video, but they are seeking to avoid the death penalty for their client by offering evidence of what they allege are systemic problems within the federal Bureau of Prisons related to officers' treatment of prisoners.

    Prosecutors have fought the disclosure of additional discovery materials, arguing that Con-ui, who is already serving 25 years to life for a 2002 murder, committed a pre-meditated murder unrelated to any other issues that may occur in prisons across the country.

    In a ruling Thursday, U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo delivered a split decision, ordering prosecutors to turn over some of the materials the defense has been seeking. The data includes a list of prison homicides from 2005 through 2015, information on staff and prison murder offenders, discipline data on death row inmates, and "shakedown" logs for ADX Florence, the supermaximum security prison in Colorado where Con-ui is being held.

    Caputo denied a request for all communications between federal prosecutors, the Bureau of Prisons, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, finding Con-ui "failed to demonstrate any factual basis for why the correspondence or communications are material to mitigation evidence."

    Con-ui's trial is scheduled to begin in April 2017. He remains in custody at the Colorado prison.

    http://www.correctionsone.com/office...killing-Pa-CO/

  7. #27
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    Filing: As guard lay dying, inmate stole gum from his pocket

    Federal prosecutors say an inmate's killing of a guard at a federal prison in Pennsylvania was a calculated slaying during which the inmate paused to chew a piece of gum he took from the dying guard's pocket.

    Prosecutors detailed the attack in court documents filed Monday, arguing that a jury should see surveillance video showing the nine-minute attack and 22-minute aftermath in which guard Eric Williams lay dying before other guards arrived.

    Jessie Con-ui (kawn-WEE') is charged in the February 2013 stabbing death of Williams at the Canaan federal prison in Waymart.

    Defense attorneys don't dispute he killed Williams. But they're opposing the death penalty and say the stabbing was retaliation for mistreatment by guards, not the calculated slaying prosecutors contend.

    A ruling on the video evidence is pending.

    http://www.montereyherald.com/genera...rom-his-pocket
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  8. #28
    Senior Member CnCP Addict TrudieG's Avatar
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    Doesn't matter what the defense attorneys say even if it was retaliation bottom line is he murdered a member of staff and the law enforcement community and a federal employee at that.

  9. #29
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    Prosecution doctors can examine Con-ui

    Federal prosecutors received permission to have their own doctors evaluate gang assassin Jessie Con-ui, who is seeking to claim a “mental disease or defect” defense against the death penalty if convicted of murdering a correctional officer at U.S. Penitentiary at Canaan.

    Mr. Con-ui, 39, is accused of kicking Nanticoke native Eric Williams down a flight of stairs before beating and slashing him to death in February 2013.

    Mr. Con-ui’s trial is scheduled for April.

    U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo granted the request shortly after it was filed Friday.

    http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/pro...n-ui-1.2142056
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  10. #30
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    Judge permits jurors to see video of correctional officer’s slaying

    WILKES-BARRE — Federal prosecutors will be permitted to show jurors the chilling video of correctional officer Eric Williams’ murder as well as limited photos showing the bloody aftermath of the attack, a federal judge has ruled.

    Jessie Con-ui, 40, is slated to stand trial in April over the February 2013 attack on Williams. Prosecutors say Con-ui kicked the Nanticoke native down a flight of stairs before beating and slashing him to death with a pair of shanks because he was angry over a cell search at U.S. Penitentiary at Canaan.

    Con-ui’s attorneys, who have not disputed he is responsible for the attack, sought to prevent jurors from seeing the “graphic and disturbing” video, which depicts a nine-minute attack — during which Con-ui pauses to wash a cut in a shower before continuing to slash Williams — in an effort to save Con-ui from getting the death penalty.

    Prosecutors countered that the video proves Con-ui was to blame and that the fact that the attack was “brutal and vicious” does not change the evidentiary value of the recording.

    In a six-page ruling filed Wednesday, U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo allows prosecutors to show the recording only during the guilt phase of the trial. Prosecutors can edit different angles that captured the attack into a continuous video, but they cannot enhance or zoom in, the judge ordered.

    During the penalty phase, prosecutors will be permitted to show five still photographs taken from the video and five autopsy photos, Caputo ordered. Prosecutors can also show one picture each of the crime scene and of Williams’ face after the attack during the penalty phase, but cannot show pictures of the officer’s bloody clothing, he wrote.

    Caputo denied a defense bid to limit victim-impact evidence only to members of Williams’ family.

    The judge also delivered a mixed ruling on whether jurors will hear about Con-ui’s violent past, precluding testimony about Con-ui attacking another inmate with a metal food tray and his involvement in a plan to attack other inmates at Arizona State Prison Complex — Winslow. However, Caputo ordered that testimony about Con-ui’s threat to harm another federal correctional officer in 2009 at U.S. Penitentiary Victorville in California will be allowed, and jurors can see video of Con-ui attacking another inmate with a weapon at U.S. Penitentiary Pollock in Louisiana in 2010.

    The judge deferred rulings on whether he would allow testimony about Con-ui’s alleged involvement in a murder conspiracy targeting a cop in Phoenix in 2003 and other incidents.

    Prosecutors allege Con-ui, a gang assassin already serving 25 years to life at ADX Florence in Colorado for a 2002 murder, viciously attacked Williams because he was angered over a previous cell search.

    Con-ui approached Williams as he climbed a set of stairs, kicking him in the face and knocking him back down, according to prosecutors. The inmate ran after Williams, took his radio, and proceeded to slash the officer more than 200 times, prosecutors allege.

    During the attack, Con-ui cut his own hand and paused to wash the wound in a shower, prosecutors say. After wrapping the injury in a T-shirt, Con-ui continued beating and slashing Williams as he lay on the ground before sitting down to chew a piece of gum he took from Williams’ pocket, prosecutors allege.

    Con-ui’s attorneys argue Con-ui is a generally well-mannered inmate who snapped because of poor treatment by prison guards.

    They have said Con-ui would plead guilty if prosecutors take the death penalty off the table.

    Prosecutors have nevertheless continued pursuing a capital murder case, which Williams’ family supports.

    http://citizensvoice.com/news/judge-...ying-1.2162213

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