Post by CCADP on Aug 27, 2005 21:10:37 GMT -5
The Advocate
Defense in 5-year-old killing seeks more information
By JAMES MINTON
jminton@theadvocate.com
Baker-Zachary bureau
Advocate staff photo by Richard Alan Hannon
Two unidentified state corrections officers escort former Angola inmate Jeffrey Cameron Clark, left, to a van Friday after a hearing in the case against Clark and four other inmates accused of killing a Louisiana State Penitentiary security officer in December 1999. Clark, like the other four, already is serving a life sentence for murder.
ST. FRANCISVILLE -- Attorneys for five inmates accused of killing a Louisiana State Penitentiary security officer more than a half-decade ago asked Friday for more information that might prove favorable to their clients at trial.
A date for the first trial in the Dec. 28, 1999, slaying of Capt. David C. Knapps, 49, remained a distant uncertainty, however.
Twentieth Judicial District Judge George H. Ware Jr. called the hearing to determine whether prosecutors had met defense requests for information to which the inmates are entitled by law.
Ware also mentioned three major issues he said must be addressed before a trial date can be set for a defendant: the question of moving the trial out of West Feliciana Parish, a constitutional challenge of capital punishment by lethal injection, and suppressing statements to police by the defendants or other witnesses.
Defense attorneys listed several more key issues, including the availability of evidence for scientific testing by defense experts.
R. Neal Walker, the attorney for defendant David Mathis, claimed that the Angola prison became "Abu Ghraib on the Mississippi" the night Knapps was killed.
Knapps was beaten and stabbed to death when a group of inmates took over the prison's Camp D education building, and Walker said Angola employees later administered beatings to a number of inmates who were in the facility.
"We will seek to suppress any statement made by inmates who were beaten that night. They couldn't have been voluntary. This will be a major hearing," Walker predicted.
Walker also said he has a strong suspicion that Angola officials destroyed evidence in the case and said he wants a hearing on that question.
The New Orleans defense attorney said Knapps' personnel file mysteriously has disappeared. "These things just don't happen at Angola," Walker charged.
He also said he has been told the state has no audio tape of Mathis' statement to sheriff's investigators, but a sheriff's report mentions that it was recorded.
"I believe he was screaming out in pain, and the tape was destroyed so there'd be no evidence," Walker said.
Mathis was shot in the face when Angola's riot control squad regained control of the building and rescued two security officers taken hostage.
Regarding the timely production of material favorable to the defendants, Mark Marinoff, representing inmate David Brown, said he had only recently received a so-called "safe surrender" document signed by Angola Warden Burl Cain guaranteeing that no disciplinary action or prosecution would be taken against Brown if he allowed officers to enter the building.
In addition to Mathis, 29, and Brown, 32, the defendants are Robert G. Carley, 37, Jeffrey Cameron Clark, 45, and Barry S. Edge, 45. All are serving life sentences for murder, but could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder in Knapps' slaying.
Clark is being held at Hunt Correctional Center because he once offered to testify against the others, his attorney said.
A sixth inmate, Joel Durham, 26, was shot to death during the rescue of one hostage.
Former 20th Judicial District Attorney Charles Shropshire did not take the case to a grand jury during the last three years of his term. His successor, Sam D'Aquilla, briefly represented Edge after the slaying, but arranged to have the state Attorney General's Office take over the case in 2003.
The attorney general stepped aside, however, because a staff lawyer also represented one of the defendants while in private practice, and D'Aquilla arranged for Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick Jr. to prosecute the five.
Connick's assistants, Roger Jordan and Tommy Block, obtained indictments against the suspects in March 2004.
During a discussion of defense testing of evidence such as blood splatters and bloody clothing, Ware told the attorneys to meet after the session to work out an agreement on hiring one expert to conduct the tests.
With the state picking up the tab for defending the inmates, Ware said he already has agreed to hiring a defense expert.
"I'd hate to think that we'd have six different experts with different results, because that would shake my faith in the scientific community," Ware said.
Ware also said he had authorized an opinion survey to determine whether Mathis and the other defendants could obtain a fair trial in West Feliciana Parish, and he urged Walker to contact a polling company as soon as possible.
The judge also gave Jordan and Block 60 days to examine the material in which defense attorneys believe information favorable to their clients may be found, including the file of the state's attorney in a federal lawsuit over the alleged beatings.
"I feel all of a sudden I've become the custodian of records for the Louisiana State Penitentiary," Jordan said, referring to demands for prison documents he said are not in his files.
Bruce Dodd, an attorney for the penitentiary, said he will assist Jordan in finding the requested records.
Defense in 5-year-old killing seeks more information
By JAMES MINTON
jminton@theadvocate.com
Baker-Zachary bureau
Advocate staff photo by Richard Alan Hannon
Two unidentified state corrections officers escort former Angola inmate Jeffrey Cameron Clark, left, to a van Friday after a hearing in the case against Clark and four other inmates accused of killing a Louisiana State Penitentiary security officer in December 1999. Clark, like the other four, already is serving a life sentence for murder.
ST. FRANCISVILLE -- Attorneys for five inmates accused of killing a Louisiana State Penitentiary security officer more than a half-decade ago asked Friday for more information that might prove favorable to their clients at trial.
A date for the first trial in the Dec. 28, 1999, slaying of Capt. David C. Knapps, 49, remained a distant uncertainty, however.
Twentieth Judicial District Judge George H. Ware Jr. called the hearing to determine whether prosecutors had met defense requests for information to which the inmates are entitled by law.
Ware also mentioned three major issues he said must be addressed before a trial date can be set for a defendant: the question of moving the trial out of West Feliciana Parish, a constitutional challenge of capital punishment by lethal injection, and suppressing statements to police by the defendants or other witnesses.
Defense attorneys listed several more key issues, including the availability of evidence for scientific testing by defense experts.
R. Neal Walker, the attorney for defendant David Mathis, claimed that the Angola prison became "Abu Ghraib on the Mississippi" the night Knapps was killed.
Knapps was beaten and stabbed to death when a group of inmates took over the prison's Camp D education building, and Walker said Angola employees later administered beatings to a number of inmates who were in the facility.
"We will seek to suppress any statement made by inmates who were beaten that night. They couldn't have been voluntary. This will be a major hearing," Walker predicted.
Walker also said he has a strong suspicion that Angola officials destroyed evidence in the case and said he wants a hearing on that question.
The New Orleans defense attorney said Knapps' personnel file mysteriously has disappeared. "These things just don't happen at Angola," Walker charged.
He also said he has been told the state has no audio tape of Mathis' statement to sheriff's investigators, but a sheriff's report mentions that it was recorded.
"I believe he was screaming out in pain, and the tape was destroyed so there'd be no evidence," Walker said.
Mathis was shot in the face when Angola's riot control squad regained control of the building and rescued two security officers taken hostage.
Regarding the timely production of material favorable to the defendants, Mark Marinoff, representing inmate David Brown, said he had only recently received a so-called "safe surrender" document signed by Angola Warden Burl Cain guaranteeing that no disciplinary action or prosecution would be taken against Brown if he allowed officers to enter the building.
In addition to Mathis, 29, and Brown, 32, the defendants are Robert G. Carley, 37, Jeffrey Cameron Clark, 45, and Barry S. Edge, 45. All are serving life sentences for murder, but could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder in Knapps' slaying.
Clark is being held at Hunt Correctional Center because he once offered to testify against the others, his attorney said.
A sixth inmate, Joel Durham, 26, was shot to death during the rescue of one hostage.
Former 20th Judicial District Attorney Charles Shropshire did not take the case to a grand jury during the last three years of his term. His successor, Sam D'Aquilla, briefly represented Edge after the slaying, but arranged to have the state Attorney General's Office take over the case in 2003.
The attorney general stepped aside, however, because a staff lawyer also represented one of the defendants while in private practice, and D'Aquilla arranged for Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick Jr. to prosecute the five.
Connick's assistants, Roger Jordan and Tommy Block, obtained indictments against the suspects in March 2004.
During a discussion of defense testing of evidence such as blood splatters and bloody clothing, Ware told the attorneys to meet after the session to work out an agreement on hiring one expert to conduct the tests.
With the state picking up the tab for defending the inmates, Ware said he already has agreed to hiring a defense expert.
"I'd hate to think that we'd have six different experts with different results, because that would shake my faith in the scientific community," Ware said.
Ware also said he had authorized an opinion survey to determine whether Mathis and the other defendants could obtain a fair trial in West Feliciana Parish, and he urged Walker to contact a polling company as soon as possible.
The judge also gave Jordan and Block 60 days to examine the material in which defense attorneys believe information favorable to their clients may be found, including the file of the state's attorney in a federal lawsuit over the alleged beatings.
"I feel all of a sudden I've become the custodian of records for the Louisiana State Penitentiary," Jordan said, referring to demands for prison documents he said are not in his files.
Bruce Dodd, an attorney for the penitentiary, said he will assist Jordan in finding the requested records.