Judge Lectures State Attorneys Over Heat Moves

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A federal judge overseeing hot conditions on Louisiana's death row sternly lectured three attorneys for the state but declined to sanction them for their "lack of candor" about awnings and soaker hoses installed last summer while heat indices were being measured for the court.

Attorneys E. Wade Shows, Amy McInnis and Jacqueline Wilson apologized Wednesday to Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson and acknowledged they should have immediately informed him when they learned Louisiana State Penitentiary officials were considering installing awnings over death row windows and misting walls with water.

The Advocate reports Shows told Jackson that Angola officials didn't intend to skew temperature data Jackson had ordered collected from mid-July to early August of last year.