Jailhouse confession approved for Angola 5 trial

Attorneys for Angola 5 defendant David Mathis have persuaded a judge to allow them to use a jailhouse confession they say would show jurors their client had no intent to kill a prison security officer in 1999.

Mathis faces a first-degree murder trial in the stabbing and beating death of Capt. David C. Knapps.

The Advocate reports jury selection is set to begin Sept. 24 in Covington, where juries were chosen last year for three of Mathis' codefendants. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Judge Jerome M. Winsberg also allowed the attorneys to subpoena four out-of-state witnesses in addition to the 16 witnesses that indigent defendants are allowed by law at state expense.