SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) - Testimony was to continue in the death penalty trial of an inmate convicted of murdering a guard at a federal prison in Pennsylvania.
The jury in a federal courthouse in Scranton must eventually decide whether 40-year-old inmate Jessie Con-ui (KAWN’-wee) should be executed or sentenced to life in prison.
The same jury has convicted Con-ui of first-degree murder and murder of a correction officer in the February 2013 stabbing death of 34-year-old corrections officer Eric Williams at the Canaan federal prison in Waymart.
Prosecutors say a video of the attack speaks to its savagery. Williams was stabbed more than 200 times.
Defense attorney David Ruhnke noted Con-ui had a difficult upbringing and was in prison by age 19. He’s already serving 25 years to life for a 2002 gang initiation murder in Arizona.
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