By Mrs. Eileen Hunter — about the author.
On September 8, 2022, a Motion for Subpoena Duces Tecum was filed in the Fourth Judicial District Court, Parish of Ouachita, to obtain the architect’s window specifications for Pod 10 at the Ouachita Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana. It was denied on October 26, 2022 on two grounds: no art. 926.2 application had been filed, and the information was “discoverable at the time of trial.” (Procedural history · the window.)
Vaccara Comanche and Clarence Kennedy both said they heard it through a window, with Mr. Hunter outside on the recreation yard and Glen Dale Nelson inside a Pod 10 cell. Comanche testified that Mr. Hunter “had to kind of shout so Glen Dale would be able to hear him.” (The window.)
Mr. Hunter’s first application, filed pro se in 2007, alleged that his attorney was ineffective for failing to obtain an audiologist to show it would have been impossible “through the jail’s double-paned windows” for the informants to hear what they described. (Motion to Reconsider, Detailed History.)
Two men housed on Pod 10 swore affidavits on December 2, 2022. Willie Campbell: “The glass in the window is really thick. You can’t hear through the glass.” Keith Davis: “You can’t hear through that glass.” Both also swore that if a person in the yard were to attempt to speak to a person in Pod 10, “Everyone, including Security and others nearby could hear.” On January 11, 2023 an unopposed Motion to Stay for 90 days was filed, to resubmit the window-specifications subpoena. At a telephone conference on January 23, 2023, the court declined the stay. (The window affidavits.)
The other half: when the subpoena was denied, no art. 926.2 application had yet been filed, and that was one of the court’s two stated grounds. No court has yet made a finding that the conversation was acoustically impossible, and the affidavits have not been credited by a court. The application they supported was denied on February 1, 2023. (Procedural history.)
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