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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. #11
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    Feds seek death penalty for inmate Jesse Con-Ui, accused in correctional officer’s slaying

    The U.S. Attorney’s office has filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty in the case of a federal inmate accused of killing a correctional officer from Nanticoke.

    Jesse Con-Ui was indicted by a federal grand jury in June 2013 charging him with killing Eric Williams, 34, in a premeditated attack at the Canaan Federal Correction Complex near Waymart. According to the indictment, Con-Ui stabbed Williams with a sharpened weapon and struck him repeatedly.

    FBI interviews of correctional officers indicate Con-Ui had barricaded himself in his cell after allegedly attacking Williams.

    http://www.timesleader.com/news/news...guards-slaying
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  2. #12
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    Even under personally abolitionist US Attorney General Eric Holder, the Justice Department seems to fairly often request the death penalty for federal lifers who kill again. I wonder how dyed-in-the-wool abolitionists deal with what may be a quandary for them of how to effectively deal with lifers who commit murder in prison or while on the lam. Of course, the problem is that another life sentence would seemingly have zero impact on such convicts and would constitute a supreme injustice as well.

  3. #13
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    Inmate accused of murdering prison guard faces 2016 trial

    The gang assassin accused of murdering Correctional Officer Eric Williams will face his capital murder trial next year, according to a new order in the case.

    U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo ordered Jessie Con-ui, 37, to stand trial July 11, 2016, on charges of murder and possessing contraband in prison.

    The U.S. Attorney’s Office in October filed notice it intends to seek the death penalty in the case because Jessie Con-ui has a history of violence, including involvement in a previous plan to kill a cop.

    Williams, a 34-year-old officer from Nanticoke, was fatally beaten and stabbed at U.S. Penitentiary at Canaan on Feb. 25, 2013.

    According to prosecutors, Con-ui charged at Williams, knocked him down a staircase, then stabbed him more than 200 times and stomped his head. Williams was working alone in a unit housing about 130 inmates and was preparing to lock them into their cells for a nightly head-count when he was attacked.

    In the notice of intent to seek the death penalty prosecutors filed, they cite a number of aggravating factors to justify the death sentence, including that Con-ui is an Arizona gang assassin already serving 25 years to life for a 2002 murder. The crime was also “especially heinous” and involved torture or serious physical abuse, the notice maintains.

    The document also noted that Con-ui was previously sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for drug trafficking and that his alleged attack on a public servant required substantial planning and premeditation.

    Prosecutors also detail a number of “additional uncharged serious acts of violence” by Con-ui, including allegations that he agreed to help stab other inmates at Arizona State Prison Complex-Florence in 1999 and assaulted an inmate with a metal food tray at Arizona State Prison Complex-Winslow in June 2000.

    Prosecutors alleged that while in Phoenix in May and June 2003, Con-ui conspired in planning a number of murders, including that of a law enforcement officer, but police arrested him before the acts were committed.

    http://citizensvoice.com/news/inmate...rial-1.1844296

  4. #14
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    Prosecutors try to block Con-ui’s access to misconduct records

    Federal prosecutors filed a lengthy opposition Friday to gang assassin Jessie Con-ui’s attempt to get misconduct records at U.S. Penitentiary Canaan, arguing Con-ui, not lax oversight, is alone responsible for the murder of Correctional Officer Eric Williams.

    Con-ui, 37, is slated to stand trial July 11, 2016, on charges of murder and possessing contraband in prison over the death of Williams, who was pushed down a staircase and stabbed more than 200 times before having his head stomped on Feb. 25, 2013.

    In the meantime, attorneys have been battling over discovery in the case. Con-ui’s defense is seeking records related to reports of staff misconduct at the prison from January 2005 to the present and a number of other items, including disciplinary information, in an attempt to “show that BOP policies and negligence were substantial factors in the death of Correctional Officer Williams.”

    The filing by Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa and others Friday opposes release of those documents, asserting they have no bearing on the case and will only confuse the issues and mislead the jury.

    “Contributory negligence on the part of (the Bureau of Prisons) has no place in this criminal prosecution,” prosecutors wrote. “Such evidence is not relevant to the guilt phase issues to be decided here, and courts have excluded this type of evidence. Likewise, this evidence is not relevant to establish a mitigating factor identified in the Federal Death Penalty Act.”

    Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Con-ui, an Arizona gang assassin already serving 25 years to life for a 2002 murder. Con-ui has a lengthy criminal history and Williams’ murder was “especially heinous” and involved torture or serious physical abuse, they argue.

    Con-ui remains imprisoned at U.S. Penitentiary Florence in Colorado.

    http://citizensvoice.com/news/prosec...ords-1.1869782

  5. #15
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    Lawyer: Accused killer of correctional guard had 'tears pouring down his face' after attack

    He may be a convicted gang assassin, but guards and inmates at U.S. Penitentiary Canaan have also described Jessie Con-ui as a quiet, respectful inmate who is the last person anyone thought would murder Correctional Officer Eric Williams — and who had “tears pouring down his face like dew” after the attack, his lawyer argued in court Thursday morning.

    The prosecution theory that Con-ui, 37, kicked Williams down a flight of stairs before beating and slashing him to death with two shanks because he was upset because of a mere cell search doesn’t add up, said attorney Mark F. Fleming, of Encinitas, California.

    Inmates at the prison report “outrageous, clearly inappropriate conduct” — including guards shredding their property, leaving open cans of tuna fish to rot behind the walls and beating inmates out of view of the cameras — and the defense is seeking to use the Bureau of Prisons’ alleged negligence as a mitigating factor against the death penalty, he said.

    The defense is seeking Bureau of Prisons records detailing reports of staff misconduct and violence that Fleming said could demonstrate negligence, which could be a mitigating factor against the death penalty during Con-ui’s July 2016 trial.

    “We’re not going to be offering excuses for the death of Officer Williams during the guilt phase. What happened to Officer Williams is inexcusable,” Fleming said, arguing that prison conditions and Con-ui’s state of mind are an “essential” component of the defense. “The question is why? Why on that night did Mr. Con-ui snap and do what’s depicted on that video?”

    The night was Feb. 25, 2013, and Con-ui’s cell had been searched about an hour before the murder, Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa said. In the time between, Con-ui fetched three prison shanks and began “laying in wait” on the second floor of the cell block, he said.

    As Williams ascended a set of stairs, Con-ui moved into a position at the top, giving him the advantage, Sempa said.

    “He kicked Eric Williams in the head and he goes after him — goes after him with two homemade weapons,” Sempa said.

    Williams fell down the stairs and Con-ui threw his radio — Williams’ last chance for help — as Con-ui proceeded to stab him more than 200 times and stomp on his head, he said.

    Afterward, Con-ui said to another officer taking him into custody “I am sorry, but I had to do what I had to do. I am sick of all your people’s disrespect,” according to prosecutors.

    “What we have is a well-planned, pre-meditated murder,” Sempa said.

    In seeking the death penalty, prosecutors alleged Con-ui showed an “utter lack of remorse.” But a recently surfaced Bureau of Prison email exchange details a meeting Con-ui had with a chaplain shortly after the attack and describes him as “weeping, apologizing and telling the chaplain how sorry he was,” Fleming said, noting the prosecution only received the email about two weeks ago from prison officials.

    Fleming said the notion Con-ui was driven to murder by a simple cell search doesn’t make sense. In his 8½ years in federal custody, Con-ui had never before attacked a correctional officer despite being searched hundreds of times, he said. In fact, several of his custodians at Canaan told investigators Con-ui was always well-mannered and respectful — one said Con-ui was the “last person they would ever suspect” of the murder, Fleming said.

    Defense interviews of more than 70 inmates at the prison backed that up, he said, with many saying Con-ui was often the person who tried to resolve conflicts and encouraged others to get along with the guards, he said.

    What did surface in the questioning was that as many as 30 inmates at the prison described being beaten, bullied and harassed at the hands of their captors, he said.

    “What we are finding in our investigation is a disturbing pattern of abuse at Canaan,” Fleming said.

    Sempa countered that inmates are notorious for lying about abuse and that the defense hasn’t raised any allegation of guards abusing Con-ui personally. The overly broad records request — some of the information being sought spans the country for decades — is irrelevant to what happened to Williams at Canaan two years ago, he said.

    “There’s simply no connection. They’re not material,” Sempa said, noting Con-ui knows nothing about the happenings in prisons in Minnesota and California. “I don’t see how it could have any relevance to this case at all.”

    The idea Con-ui is a quiet, respectful inmate is also “verifiably false,” Sempa said. Con-ui has been the subject of 39 disciplinary actions dating to 1996, ranging from refusing orders to stabbing another inmate, beating another inmate with a metal food tray and threatening a correctional officer who had just searched his cell, Sempa said.

    “This defendant has been violent inside prison,” Sempa said. “Of course, we know he has been violent outside of prison.”

    Con-ui, a member of the Arizona Mexican Mafia, is serving 25 years to life for a 2002 murder. He is imprisoned at U.S. Penitentiary Florence in Colorado and appeared by video, wearing an orange jumpsuit. He spoke only once to say, “Good morning, your honor.”

    U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo took the arguments under advisement and will rule at a later date.

    http://citizensvoice.com/news/lawyer...tack-1.1873486

  6. #16
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    Judge rules Con-ui’s defense team entitled to contested records

    A federal judge on Friday ruled Jessie Con-ui’s defense team is entitled to many of the contested records it sought to show that systemic problems at U.S. Penitentiary Canaan could have precipitated the brutal murder of Correctional Officer Eric Williams.

    Prosecutors contend that Con-ui, 37, kicked Williams down a flight of stairs before beating and slashing him to death with two shanks because he was upset over a cell search Feb. 25, 2013. But his defense argues there is more to it — Con-ui was a quiet, respectful inmate who may have snapped because of a “disturbing pattern of abuse at Canaan” committed by guards, they contend.

    Though such conditions don’t excuse the murder, Con-ui’s state of mind at the time could help mitigate against the death penalty, Con-ui’s defense argues.

    In a ruling issued Friday, U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo ruled the defense is entitled to all records of staff misconduct allegations at Canaan from 2009 through 2013, but denied earlier records.

    Con-ui is also entitled to reports related to all incidents at Canaan for the past five years and related to staff homicides at prisons nationwide for the past 20 years, Caputo ruled.

    The defense will also get a copy of post-orders for Con-ui’s unit and the lieutenant logbook for the six months following the murder.

    The judge denied two components of the request for special housing unit logs, in one case because prosecutors have already vowed to turn them over and in the other because the federal Bureau of Prisons asserts no such log exists.

    Con-ui can get disciplinary records related to violence and weapons possession for offenses committed at Canaan from 2009 through 2012, but not for acts committed at other prisons, the judge ruled. The defense will also be allowed to see copies of labor grievances and related documents.

    Con-ui, a member of the Arizona Mexican Mafia, is already serving 25 years to life for a 2002 murder. He is slated to go to trial for Williams' murder in July 2016.

    http://citizensvoice.com/news/judge-...ords-1.1878274

  7. #17
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    Deadlines set leading up to Con-ui’s 2016 murder trial

    Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys in the case against accused correctional officer killer Jessie Con-ui finally agree on something — deadlines to resolve legal issues leading up to his July 2016 capital murder trial.

    The two sides recently agreed on a “joint proposed trial schedule” that outlines the pre-trial steps leading up to jury selection on Monday, July 11, 2016.

    Con-ui, a gang assassin already facing a potential life sentence for an Arizona murder conviction, will stand trial for the slaying of Correctional Officer Eric Williams, 34, of Nanticoke, killed Feb. 25, 2013, at U.S. Penitentiary at Canaan.

    Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Con-ui.

    U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo approved the pre-trial timeline submitted to him, according a court filing Thursday.

    Some of the deadlines include: Motions to compel discovery must be made by Aug. 15; challenges to the federal death penalty must be submitted by Sept. 14; all guilt phase experts, and their qualifications, must be disclosed between the parties by Dec. 7; attorneys must give the court a joint juror questionnaire by Jan. 19, 2016; and additional motions about the trial and guilt phase should be submitted by April 11, 2016.

    A final pre-trial conference will be held the week of June 13, 2016 and a final motions hearing will be held the week of June 27.

    As he awaits trial, Con-ui, 38, is jailed at ADX Florence, the supermaximum security prison in Colorado known as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies.”

    http://citizensvoice.com/news/deadli...rial-1.1889850

  8. #18
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    Attorneys for gang assassin Con-ui want death penalty off table

    WILKES-BARRE — Calling the federal death penalty a punishment carried out in an “arbitrary and capricious manner that is akin to being struck by lightning,” attorneys representing convicted gang assassin Jessie Con-ui are seeking to have a federal judge take the death penalty off the table against their client — and rule the punishment entirely unconstitutional.

    Con-ui, 37, faces the death penalty if convicted next July of murdering Nanticoke native Correctional Officer Eric Williams at U.S. Penitentiary Canaan on Feb. 25, 2013. Prosecutors allege Con-ui, angered over a previous cell search, kicked Williams down a flight of stairs before beating and slashing him to death with two shanks.

    A notice of intent to seek the death penalty prosecutors filed in October asserts Con-ui deserves to die for the crime, which was captured by surveillance cameras, because it was committed in an “especially heinous, cruel or depraved manner” by a convicted drug trafficker and murderer who has a history of violence, including against law enforcement.

    A lengthy motion filed Monday by attorneys James A. Swetz, Mark Fleming and David A. Ruhnke disputes that and asks U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo to take death off the table.

    The lawyers assert that in 25 years, the federal death penalty has been carried out in an “arbitrary, capricious, irrational, and invidious manner and is, therefore, unconstitutional.” Evolving standards of decency in the community “mark the progress of a maturing society” and render the penalty unconstitutional, they argue.

    Con-ui’s defense has not contested that he committed the crime, but has raised the question of why. They assert the federal Bureau of Prisons operated the prison in a negligent manner, with staff misconduct and violence pushing Con-ui to snap the night of the murder — what they claim would be a mitigating factor against the death penalty.

    Still, the lawyers also argue that the punishment creates an “unacceptable risk of executing the innocent.”

    The death penalty is also unevenly applied on a regional basis and “suffers from intractable problems of racial discrimination in the targeting of minority defendants,” the lawyers maintain, citing statistics that 73 percent of those targeted for capital prosecution are minorities.

    “This Court should declare the (Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994) unconstitutional and permit this case to proceed as a non-death penalty case,” the lawyers argued. “In the alternative, Mr. Con-ui requests that an evidentiary hearing be scheduled to permit the presentation of expert testimony and empirical evidence in support of the argument that the FDPA is so incomprehensible to jurors as to prevent, or substantially impair, their performance in the task of deciding between a death sentence and a life sentence.”

    Prosecutors had not immediately responded to the lengthy filing, which consisted of 178 pages plus a 258-page appendix.

    The U.S. Attorney’s Office argues the killing was a cold-blooded murder carried out by a drug-dealing gang assassin already serving 25 years to life for a 2002 murder.

    The night Williams was killed, Con-ui was angered about a cell search and was “laying in wait” on the second floor of the cell block, according to prosecutors.

    As Williams ascended a set of stairs, Con-ui moved into a position at the top, giving him the advantage as he kicked Williams in the head, knocking him down the stairs, prosecutors said.

    Con-ui then tossed aside a radio — Williams’ last chance for help — and proceeded to stab him more than 200 times and stomp on his head, prosecutors allege.

    Afterward, Con-ui said to another officer taking him into custody, “I am sorry, but I had to do what I had to do. I am sick of all your people’s disrespect,” according to prosecutors.

    His defense, however, maintains Con-ui had “tears pouring down his face like dew” after the attack, he was so upset. They portray Con-ui as a respectful, well-mannered inmate who may have lashed out following what they termed a “disturbing pattern of abuse at Canaan.”

    In May, his lawyers won a request for many Bureau of Prisons records they were seeking in the hope they will substantiate the accounts of up to 30 inmates who claim to have been beaten, bullied and harassed at the hands of their captors.

    Con-ui’s trial is scheduled to begin with jury selection on Monday, July 11, 2016.

    http://citizensvoice.com/news/attorn...able-1.1953727

  9. #19
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    Prosecutor urges judge to dismiss defense motion in Con-ui case

    The attack on the death penalty mounted by gang assassin Jessie Con-ui's defense last month amounts to little more than a "boiler plate" assault on a well-established federal law, prosecutors wrote in a response filed Monday urging dismissal of the defense motion.

    Con-ui, 37, faces the death penalty if convicted next July of murdering Nanticoke native Correctional Officer Eric Williams at U.S. Penitentiary Canaan on Feb. 25, 2013. Prosecutors allege Con-ui, angered over a previous cell search, kicked Williams down a flight of stairs before beating and slashing him to death with 2 shanks.

    Prosecutors argue Con-ui should die for the crime, which was recorded by surveillance cameras, because it was committed in an "especially heinous, cruel or depraved manner" by a convicted drug trafficker and murderer who has a history of violence, including against law enforcement.

    But in a filing last month, Con-ui's defense sought to have U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo strike down the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994 as unconstitutional, saying it has been implemented in an "arbitrary, capricious, irrational, and invidious manner."

    In the filing Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa says such motions have become commonplace in capital cases and their arguments are nothing new.

    "As daunting as Mr. Con-Ui's Motion to Strike appears at first glance, it is nothing more than a 'boiler plate' assault on the FDPA, which is filed by the defense for consideration 'in nearly every, if not every, federal capital case in recent decades,'" Sempa wrote.

    Because the arguments aren't new, prosecutors opted not to "reinvent the wheel," instead citing extensive case law from other judges who have rejected the same arguments, he wrote.

    "All of defendant's arguments are afflicted by the same basic and fatal flaw, that is, they are in opposition with long-standing legal principles and overwhelming authority to the contrary," Sempa wrote.

    Con-ui's trial is scheduled to begin with jury selection on Monday, July 11, 2016.

    http://citizensvoice.com/news/prosec...case-1.1972241

  10. #20
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    Jesse Con-ui, accused of killing a corrections officer, would plead guilty if death penalty dropped

    WILKES-BARRE — A man accused of killing a corrections officer now wants the prosecution to remove the death penalty from his upcoming trial.

    Prosecutors allege Jesse Con-ui, 37, beat and killed corrections officer Eric Williams, of Nanticoke, with two shanks after kicking him down a flight of stairs in the U.S. Penitentiary Canaan, Wayne County, on Feb. 25, 2013. If convicted, Con-ui faces the death penalty.

    The counts filed against him are one count each of first-degree murder, first-degree murder of a U.S. corrections officer and possession of contraband in prison.

    The law team for Con-ui — attorneys David A. Ruhnke, James A. Swetz and Mark F. Fleming — filed a motion Monday that states the federal death penalty is unconstitutional because of “our maturing society’s evolving sense of decency.”

    It states that Con-ui would plead guilty if the “government forgoes a capital prosecution.” Also, according to the filing, Con-ui would waive his right to an appeal and “submit to the harsh conditions of confinement that have been and will continue to be imposed by the Bureau of Prisons, in essence, lifetime solitary confinement.”

    Prosecutors allege Con-ui’s violent past justifies the death penalty. He was serving an 11-year sentence at Canaan from a guilty plea in 2003 for his role in a New Mexico Mafia run drug ring. He was set to begin serving a life sentence in 2014, after pleading guilty in 2008 to first-degree murder.

    A hearing on the tabling of the death penalty is set for 10 a.m. Jan. 13 before Caputo. Con-ui’s trial is scheduled for jury selection July 11, 2016.

    https://timesleader.com/news/497033/...enalty-dropped

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