A federal judge has upheld the prison sentence of Corey Miller, the rapper known as C-Murder, who was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2002 death of Steven Thomas. He was sentenced to life in prison in 2009. The decision was released on November 13 and reported by The Source on Monday, November 29.
District Judge Sarah Vance's opinion ruling addresses the two witnesses to the shooting, Darnell and Kenneth Jordan, who in 2018 recanted their testimony of seeing Miller kill the 16-year-old Thomas at a Louisiana nightclub. Both men claimed that police had coerced them to identify Miller, which investigators denied.
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The recantations were previously found to be “suspect and not reliable" by a lower state trial court in January 2019, and Vance's new ruling upheld that decision. "The state trial court found contradictions and falsities in both Darnell's and Kenneth's affidavits," the new decision reads, "which led the court to conclude that the affidavits were not credible and unreliable to serve as proof" of Miller's innocence.
AllHipHop reports that Miller's attorney Jane Hogan has appealed the decision to the Fifth Circuit court. In a statement to The FADER, Hogan wrote: "While I am disappointed that Mr. Miller has, yet again, been denied a day in court, this ruling will be appealed. Mr. Miller also has a pending state court petition alleging factual innocence and I am optimistic that at some point, he will be granted a hearing on his substantial claim of innocence."
This post was updated on Thursday, Noember 30, 2023 at 8:24 a.m. to include a statement from Miller's attorney, Jane Hogan
