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
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