By James Halpin
The Citizens’ Voice
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Gang assassin Jessie Con-ui on Monday put federal prosecutors on notice that he plans to use a “mental disease or defect” defense against the death penalty if convicted of murdering a correctional officer at U.S. Penitentiary at Canaan.
Con-ui is slated to stand trial in April over the February 2013 attack on officer Eric Williams, a Nanticoke native. Prosecutors allege Con-ui kicked Williams down a flight of stairs before beating and slashing him to death with two shanks because he was angered over a cell search.
Con-ui’s attorneys have not disputed he was responsible for the attack, which was caught on video, but maintained poor treatment by prison guards led him to snap. In the filing Monday, his attorneys notified prosecutors they intend to “introduce expert evidence relating to a mental disease or defect or any other mental condition of the defendant bearing on the issue of punishment.”
Prosecutors are seeking to prohibit Con-ui from introducing prison culture evidence showing that the federal Bureau of Prisons was negligent in its treatment of inmates, saying it is irrelevant to Con-ui’s case.