Corey "C-Murder" Miller is about to go
through it again. A judge in Gretna, Louisiana set a date for the second murder
trial for the rapper for September 12, 2005.
Miller was convicted last September for the shooting death of 16-year-old Steve
Thomas, 16, in 2002.
He was never sentenced due to allegations that
the prosecution withheld evidence. Miller faces a mandatory life sentence, should
he be found guilty.
Thomas was shot after the two allegedly had a
confrontation in a now defunct Jefferson Parish nightclub.
While nine defense witnesses testified that Miller
had nothing to do with the shooting or the beating, in some cases they gave
conflicting testimony.
Two witnesses produced by the prosecution, one
a security guard for the club, testified that they both saw Miller and friends
assault the teenager.
One of the witnesses said that she did not actually
see Miller holding the gun, but saw sparks from a gun where Miller’s hand would
have been.
When the jury convicted him, his family immediately
responded and said they would fight the decision, with Master P. claiming that
the local system was corrupt.
"The whole system there is corrupt, but
I think the Judge (Martha Sassone) wants it to change." Miller told AllHipHop.com
Sassone granted the retrial. "There are so many witnesses that said C didn’t
do this. Look at what the D.A. has done, clearing records and that kind of thing.
Everyone assumed he was guilty but people testified he didn’t do it. Now he’s
sitting there incarcerated and we believe he’s innocent."
One of the key arguments for the defense’s motion
for a retrial, was the revelation that local detectives cleared a prosecution
witness’ parking tickets and an arrest warrant for felony theft charges.
In December, Miller’s attorneys produced a key
prosecution witness that said she did not see Miller shoot Thomas and witnessed
another man with a gun before the shooting.
The woman testified under oath that she stood
on a chair and witnessed Miller beating Thomas but fell and did not witness
the shooting.
She said moments before the shooting, she witnessed
another man known as "Calliope Slim" with a gun. The woman claimed
that she told Jefferson Parish detectives before the trial, but didn’t reveal
the information during the trial because no one asked her.
Yesterday, Miller pleaded innocent to the charges,
as he at the outset of the first trial.