There is an interesting murder conviction out of Louisiana where Rapper Corey “C-Murder” Miller was found guilty of second-degree murder — but after a series of bizarre problems in the jury room. When the jury first delivered a guilty verdict in the case in the murder of Steve Thomas, 16, it was rejected by Judge Hans Liljeberg due to an account that a juror voted guilty to simply get out of continued jury duty. Yet, he accepted a second guilty verdict a few hours later –even after complaints about a juror who was sleeping and quoting from the Bible (and had asked to be relieved of juror duty).
The vote of 10-2 is sufficient in Louisiana for a second degree murder conviction. Defense attorney Ron Rakosky accused Liljeberg of pressuring a guilty verdict with his orders, but Liljeberg denied the motion for a mistrial. He also denied an earlier request from the juror acting strangely to be relieved from the jury — despite her sleeping and quoting from the Bible.
Previously, Liljeberg refused to recuse himself, here.
Of course, taking a client into a murder case with the name of “C-Murder” is not the easiest task. He insisted that it simply referred to his seeing murder as opposed to committing murder. C-Murder has released various albums and songs, including the popular and prophetic “Trapped in Crime.” At least, he was not implicated by the lyrics of his own rap songs, here.
He was previously found guilty of beating and shooting Thomas (a fan at a nightclub) but the conviction was thrown out after the court found that prosecutors had withheld evidence in the case. There is no record of the Jefferson Parish prosecutors being punished for the alleged misconduct.
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