Autopsy results are pending in the apparent suicide of an inmate at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
West Feliciana Parish Sheriff J. Austin Daniel told the Advocate Monday that authorities found 33-year-old Kriss Lane hanging in his cell at Angola's main prison complex shortly before 3 p.m. Friday.
Louisiana State Penitentiary Warden Burl Cain says he'd never heard of an inmate breaking out of jail just to seek a transfer to another prison, but that's what a New Orleans offender serving time for armed robbery attempted early Friday.
Cain tells The Advocate he received a call around 12:40 a.m. at his residence about a prison break at Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel.
A New Orleans nonprofit organization wants a federal court order that would require officials of the Louisiana State Penitentiary to grant center attorneys and a medical specialist access to death-row inmates and records at Angola.
Advocacy Center attorneys say in a civil lawsuit that prison officials have refused to allow them to pursue prisoner reports that death-row temperatures have exceeded 100 degrees.
