The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from a Louisiana death row inmate seeking a new hearing on the verdict over a disagreement by the three Liberal justices. The court dismissed David Brown, who was found guilty of killing a prison guard, Captain David Knapps, while attempting to escape from Angola’s state prison in 1999.
Brown argues he is entitled to a review of his death sentence because prosecutors failed to present his attorneys with evidence that could have caused a jury to spare his life.
It was only after the sentencing that prosecutors produced Brown’s legal team with a confession from a fellow inmate, Barry Edge, that supported Brown’s claim that he had no part in Knapps’ murder.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that the delay violated Brown’s constitutional rights under a 1963 Supreme Court decision ordering prosecutors to turn over material that would help a defendant’s case.
“Edge never implied in his confession that Brown was involved in the fatal attack; his description of the events leading up to the murder made no mention of Brown at all,” Jackson wrote, along with judges Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
Brown had joined a group of inmates in the attempt to escape, but claimed he was not present when Knapps was killed in a bathroom.
“The fact that Edge confessed, without naming or implying Brown, that he was involved in the murder provided independent evidence supporting Brown’s argument that he was not present at the time of the murder and had no intention of killing the victim,” wrote Jackson.
A state judge reversed the death sentence, but the Louisiana Supreme Court reinstated it by a vote of 4 to 3. The majority of that court said Edge’s testimony was not favorable to Brown.
According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, Knapps and two other guards had been taken hostage by a small group of inmates when he was hit with a hammer.
“The prisoners demanded that Captain Knapps give them his prison keys,” the memorial page reads. “When he refused, the inmates hit him with a hammer.”
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there are 62 inmates on death row in Louisiana, and two inmates have been granted pardons.
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