The Supreme Court refused—over the dissent of three liberal justices—on April 3 to take up an appeal by a death row prisoner in Louisiana who was seeking a new sentencing hearing.
The inmate, David Brown, argued the prosecution improperly withheld a confession from a co-defendant that could have affected the sentence Brown was given.
The case goes back to a 1999 attempt at escape from the Angola state prison. Brown and four co-defendants, called the Angola 5 in the media, were convicted of first-degree murder in the killing of prison guard David Knapps.
Brown said he was entitled to have his death sentence reconsidered because prosecutors failed to hand over potentially exculpatory evidence to defense lawyers….