Backup ambulance plan developer critical of changes to be made by Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tony George

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Area faithful attend Good Friday services, pray for wisdom and peace

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Prosecutors have withdrawn part of a set of legal arguments they&#8217;re relying upon in their pursuit of the death penalty against a violent gang member accused of viciously murdering a federal corrections officer.</p><p>According to an amended notice filed Friday in federal court, prosecutors withdrew future dangerousness, lack of remorse and low rehabilitative potential from a list of non-statutory aggravating factors they argue justify putting Jessie Con-ui to death.</p><p>Future dangerousness, or whether the defendant poses a continuing threat to the lives and safety of others, was included among three aggravating factors defense attorneys <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/501754/federal-prosecutors-continue-to-oppose-removal-of-death-penalty-in-case-of-eric-williams-murder" target="_blank">sought to strike </a>in an October court filing that also argued against the practicality of the death penalty.</p><p>U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/507565/federal-judge-upholds-death-penalty-in-jessie-con-ui-case" target="_blank">upheld the use of the punishment</a> in a Jan. 28 decision.</p><p>Six statutory aggravating factors, or factors related to a formal law, remained unchanged from a prior notice to seek the death penalty filed Oct. 2, 2014. The non-statutory factors that remain intact in Friday&#8217;s filing include victim impact and participation in additional uncharged serious acts of violence.</p><p>It was unclear Friday what prompted the amended notice. Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa did not immediately return a request for comment Friday.</p><p>Con-ui, 39, is slated to stand trial in September on charges he murdered corrections officer Eric J. Williams at U.S. Penitentiary Canaan in Wayne County in 2013. Williams, a 2003 King&#8217;s College graduate, was 24.</p><p>Out of the Nanticoke native&#8217;s death came the Eric Williams Correctional Officer Protection Act. <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/local/520312/obama-signs-protective-law-named-for-slain-corrections-officer-eric-williams" target="_blank">Signed into law March 10</a> by President Barack Obama, the act allows federal corrections officer to carry non-lethal pepper spray.</p><p>Prosecutors claim Con-ui ambushed the unarmed guard as he ascended a staircase inside the prison. The inmate then kicked him down the flight of stairs before beating and stabbing him to death, prosecutors allege. They say Con-ui tossed Williams&#8217; radio aside in an attempt to keep him from calling for help.</p><p>A New Mexican Mafia gang member with a chilling past, Con-ui was serving an 11-year prison sentence at Canaan on drug charges.</p><p>Following that sentence, he was set to begin serving life in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder. Prosecutors allege Con-ui in 2008 baited friend and fellow gang member Carlos Garcia into meeting him at an Arizona laundromat where two men ambushed and shot him.</p><p>Con-ui allegedly agreed to or participated in several separate, uncharged incidents while jailed between 1999 and 2010, including stabbing another inmate with a homemade knife and assaulting another inmate with a metal food tray, according to prosecutors.</p><p>Prosecutors allege that while out of jail in 2013, Con-ui conspired in the planned murder of a law enforcement officer but was arrested before the scheme could be carried out.</p><p>Con-ui remains jailed at ADX Florence, a super-maximum federal prison in Fremont County, Colorado, nicknamed the &#8220;Alcatraz of the Rockies.&#8221; He is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree murder of a federal corrections officer and possessing contraband in prison.</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/web1_Jessie-Con-Ui-2014-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Con-Ui </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/web1_Jessie-Con-Ui-2014-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Con-Ui </caption0><photoCredit0>Times Leader file </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Joe Dolinsky</p><p>jdolinsky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Joe Dolinsky at 570-991-6110 or on Twitter @JoeDolinskyTL</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Prosecutors drop death penalty arguments opposed by Con-ui’s defense