C-Murder lost his appeal for a new trial yesterday (March 10), after the rapper was convicted in September of 2003 for the murder of a 16-year-old inside a Harvey, Louisiana night club. In 2004, Judge Martha Sassone ordered a new trial for Miller, younger brother of Percy “Master P” Miller, claiming that the prosecution withheld evidence from the defense, after it was revealed that some of the prosecution’s witnesses had prior criminal records. In addition, Miller’s lawyers said that black jurors were systematically excluded from the case. Two of the three Judges on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeal disagreed with Sassone’s ruling granting Miller a new trial and upheld Miller’s original conviction. “There was an abundance of other evidence which fully established Miller’s guilt," the judges wrote. Miller is facing a mandatory life sentence, but his attorney said that an appeal of the decision to the same court, or the Louisiana Supreme Court highly probable. The rapper was convicted of second-degree murder, after he allegedly gunned down 16-year-old Steve Thomas in January of 2002, after Thomas allegedly snuck into a now defunct nightclub and argued with Miller. Miller recently made national headlines, after he outraged Louisiana officials by recording an album and shooting a video for his single “Y’all Heard of Me,” from prison.
C-Murder lost his
appeal for a new trial yesterday (March 10), after the rapper was convicted in
September of 2003 for the murder of a 16-year-old inside a Harvey, Louisiana night
club.
In 2004, Judge Martha Sassone
ordered a new trial for Miller, younger brother of Percy “Master P”
Miller, claiming that the prosecution withheld evidence from the defense, after
it was revealed that some of the prosecution’s witnesses had prior criminal
records.
In addition, Miller’s
lawyers said that black jurors were systematically excluded from the case.
Two of the three Judges
on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeal disagreed with Sassone’s ruling granting
Miller a new trial and upheld Miller’s original conviction.
“There was an abundance
of other evidence which fully established Miller’s guilt," the judges wrote.
Miller is facing a mandatory
life sentence, but his attorney said that an appeal of the decision to the same
court, or the Louisiana Supreme Court highly probable.
The rapper was convicted
of second-degree murder, after he allegedly gunned down 16-year-old Steve Thomas
in January of 2002, after Thomas allegedly snuck into a now defunct nightclub
and argued with Miller.
Miller recently
made national headlines, after he outraged Louisiana officials by recording
an album and shooting a video for his single “Y’all Heard of Me,”
from prison.
