Is C-Murder innocent? New breaks in his case make it look like Master P’s brother really isn’t the shooter after claims that the Jefferson Parish sheriffs set him up and now, after 16 years, he may actually walk free.
Growing Up Hip Hop viewers have heard plenty about Corey Miller’s case. In 2003, C-Murder was convicted of shooting Steve Thomas at the now-defunctPlatinum Club in Harvey, Louisiana.
The case ended up in re-trial after new evidence came out about the witnesses. It turns out that new questions about their credibility cropped up after it was learned that prosecutors withheld information about their criminal background.
Miller was on house arrest while waiting for the retrial and during that time, was allowed to work on his music. In 2009, an attempted murder trial began and ultimately, Miller was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years. He was given credit for time served.
Later that year, the murder retrial began and this is where things get really messy. Several of the rapper’s associates were accused of and charged with witness tampering.
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A bouncer who was at the Platinum Club on the night of the shooting testified against Miller and also claimed that he was worried about possible retaliation. The father of the victim even took the stand and told the jury that prior to his murder, his son was a huge C-Murder fan.
It was up to the jury to decide Corey Miller’s fate again and even that didn’t go smooth. When the jury returned with the verdict on August 10, 2009, they were deadlocked and could not reach a guilty or innocent verdict.
The judge sent the jury back to deliberate, hoping that they’d return with a verdict so the case could be closed. When they returned just three hours later with a 10-2 vote for a guilty verdict, the judge sent them back to deliberate again, feeling that the only reason a juror flipped was so they could close the case and go home.
The jurors returned to court the next day with the same 10-2 vote and a guilty verdict. The judge accepted it as a legal verdict and sent Corey Miller to prison for a mandatory life sentence.
C-Murder’s hunger strike at Angola Prison
Corey Miller has been fighting for his freedom and proclaiming his innocence to anyone who will listen ever since he was found guilty in the Platinum Club murder. After years of working to prove his innocence, Miller began 2018 on a hunger strike.
The hunger strike lasted for three weeks and during that time, Miller said he was doing it to protest the inhumane conditions at Angola State Prison. During much of that time, he was in solitary confinement but was returned to the general population after ending the hunger strike which he called a success.
In the latest Growing Up Hip Hop teaser, we see Master P telling his son Romeo about the hunger strike. Soon after, Master P went to visit his brother in Angola and reported back to fans about what he learned.
Will Corey Miller be freed?
Ever since Master P’s update about witnesses started to speak up about how Corey Miller’s murder case was handled, there have been many questions raised. Additionally, not one but two of the witnesses to the shooting have now recanted their testimony.
The second witness, Darnell Jordan, has even said that he is sure that it wasn’t Corey Miller who shot Steve Thomas at that club. Instead, he claims that he was tricked into identifying Miller as the shooter after specifically saying that he did not do it.
Both of the original witnesses are putting blame on the Jefferson Parish detectives and prosecutors for allegedly forcing false statements and ignoring them when they said that it wasn’t C-Murder who killed Steve Thomas.
With this new information regarding Miller’s trial, his attorney Paul Barker is now working to have the conviction overturned and vacated. He wants another trial in order to prove that Miller was blamed for a murder that he did not commit.
“Mr. Miller is indeed innocent of the murder for which he has been convicted, and it is high time that this illegal conviction and sentence be reversed and vacated,” Barker wrote in a statement just days ago.
Will Corey “C-Murder” Miller walk free again? If Master P and their lawyers have anything to do with it, he’ll be out and working on more albums very soon.
Growing Up Hip Hop airs on Thursdays at 8/7c on WEtv.
