Supreme Court rejects appeal from Louisiana inmate sentenced to death for deadly prison escape attempt

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from a Louisiana death row inmate seeking a new sentencing hearing, over a dissent from the three liberal justices. The court turned away David Brown, who was convicted of killing a prison guard, Capt. David Knapps, during a 1999 escape attempt from the state prison in Angola.

Brown argues he is entitled to a reconsideration of his death sentence because prosecutors failed to provide his lawyers with evidence that might have led a jury to spare his life.

Only after the sentencing did prosecutors give Brown’s legal team a confession from a fellow inmate, Barry Edge, that supported Brown’s contention that he was not involved in Knapps’ killing.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that the delay violated Brown’s constitutional rights under a 1963 Supreme Court decision requiring the prosecution to turn over material that would help a defendant’s case.

“At no point in the confession did Edge suggest Brown was involved in the fatal attack; his description of the events leading up to the murder did not mention Brown at all,” Jackson wrote, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

Brown had joined a group of inmates in the escape attempt, but claimed he wasn’t there when Knapps was killed inside a bathroom.

“The fact that Edge confessed without naming Brown or suggesting that he had participated in the murder supplied independent evidence corroborating Brown’s argument that he was not present during the murder and did not intend to kill the victim,” Jackson wrote.

A state judge overturned the death sentence, but the Louisiana Supreme Court reinstated it by a 4-3 vote. That court’s majority said Edge’s statement wasn’t 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 bludgeoned with a hammer.

“The prisoners demanded that Captain Knapps turn over his jail keys to them,” the memorial page says. “When he refused, the inmates beat him with a hammer.”

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Louisiana has 62 inmates on death row, and two inmates have been granted clemency.