FEDERAL INMATE GETS FATALLY BEATEN IN PRISON CLASS

CCTV:March 11/08(Released January 20/09:Federal prosecutors played a dramatic videotape in court Tuesday showing an inmate beating another to death in Chicago's downtown federal prison as the two took a course in "growth and development" to prepare for life on the outside.

The attack occurred March 11 after Jason Katz repeatedly called Jason Tolen a "bitch ass snitch" in front of about 40 other inmates attending the pre-release class in the prison chapel.

Tolen is seen on the videotape standing up, storming to the back of the room and throwing punches furiously at Katz.

"I saw him basically pummeling Jason Katz repeatedly. . . . He [Katz] didn't throw a punch," Daniel Greenstein, a psychologist who was leading the class, testified at Tolen's trial in federal court.

When the approximately 15-second beating ended, Katz staggered a few feet out of the chapel and collapsed, Greenstein said. Katz never regained consciousness and died the next day of massive head injuries.

Katz, 32, a South Bend, Ind., native, and Tolen, 20, a native of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, were serving sentences for separate weapons convictions.