Corey Miller (born March 9, 1971),[1] better known by his stage name C-Murder, is an American rapper. He initially gained fame in the mid-1990s as a part of his brother Master P's label No Limit Records, primarily as a member of the label's supergroup, TRU. Miller went on to release several solo albums of his own through the label, including 1998's platinumLife or Death. C-Murder has released nine albums altogether on six different labels, No Limit Records, TRU Records, Koch Records, Asylum Records, RBC Records, and Venti Uno.
In 2002, Miller was arrested in connection with the murder of 16-year-old Steve Thomas, and was sentenced to life in prison on August 14, 2009. Miller is serving his sentence at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.[2][3] Controversy surrounding witnesses involved in Miller's trial came to light in 2018 when two key witnesses recanted their statements, claiming they had been pressured into testifying against Miller by authorities. Miller maintains his innocence, and he, his brothers, and his nephew have all called for a new trial numerous times.[4][5]
In 2001, he released C-P-3.com, his last album with No Limit Records. It peaked at No.45 on the Billboard 200[6] and included the singles "What U Gonna Do" and "Im Not Just".[citation needed]
In 2003, he was convicted of the murder of fan Steve Thomas.[2] He recorded three hit albums while under house arrest awaiting re-trial: The Truest Shit I Ever Said (2005) which reached No.41 on the Billboard 200, Screamin' 4 Vengeance (2008) which reached No.130, and Calliope Click (2009) which peaked at No.68 on the Billboard R&B Albums chart.[6]
In 2009, he lost his appeal[8] and pleaded no contest to two counts of attempted murder in an unrelated incident.[9] While in prison he self-released a mixtape Ricochet (2013) and four albums, Tomorrow (2010), Ain't No Heaven in the Pen (2015), Give Me Freedom Or Give Me Death (2021), and the compilation Oldies but Goodies (2018).[citation needed]
In 2016, he released a diss track accusing rapper 2 Chainz of using the slogan and name style of his former group TRU[10][11] and record label TRU Global Records.[12]
In September 2003, Miller was convicted of second degree murder in connection with the January 12, 2002 beating and fatal shooting of a fan, 16-year-old Steve Thomas, at the Platinum Club, a now-closed nightclub in Harvey, Louisiana.[2] Miller was arrested in the early hours of January 18 for causing a disturbance at the House of Blues in New Orleans, and shortly after charged in Thomas' murder.[13] He was indicted on February 28, 2002.[14] Judge Martha Sassone granted a new trial in April 2004 based on the claim that prosecutors improperly withheld criminal background information on three of their witnesses.[citation needed]
On March 20, 2006, Miller was released on a $500,000 bond and placed under house arrest.[15] Sassone allowed Miller to promote his new, yet-to-be-titled CD and his novel, Death around the Corner, while under house arrest, but ruled that a gag order pertaining to the case would remain in effect. The terms of the house arrest required Sassone's permission for all visitors, including reporters.[16]
On March 13, 2007, Sassone granted Miller's request to work on his music career on a per-request basis, but denied his request for a 7:00a.m. to 9:00p.m. curfew.[17] Sassone's rulings in the case became an issue in her failed 2008 bid for re-election. Sassone was defeated by Judge Ellen Kovach; prosecutors subsequently renewed a request to have Miller returned to jail.[18] During January 2009, Miller was confined to his residence on house arrest, and could only leave for a documented medical emergency.
On May 27, 2009, Miller pleaded no contest to two counts of attempted second degree murder. These charges stem from a 2001 incident in Baton Rouge in which Miller fired one shot, after which it jammed, from a semi-automatic pistol at the owner and bouncer of a night club who refused to allow Miller to enter the business with the gun. Miller was sentenced to ten years with credit for time served.[9] A surveillance video of the incident was posted on YouTube.[citation needed]
On August 5, 2009, the murder trial began. The father of the victim spoke of his son being a fan of C-Murder before the incident. A bouncer also testified against Miller, saying he witnessed the shooting. He expressed fear of repercussions for his testimony. Prosecutors also charged C-Murder's associates with witness tampering.[19]
On August 10, 2009, the jury reported being deadlocked, but Judge Hans Liljeberg instructed them to attempt to resolve the deadlock. Three hours later, the jury returned to announce it reached a 10–2 guilty verdict. The judge suspected that, given the deadlock announced earlier followed by the quick reversal, one of the jurors decided to switch under pressure to end the trial and instructed the jury to go back and deliberate on the case longer.[20]
When they returned with the same 10–2 verdict, Miller was convicted of second-degree murder.[8] During sentencing, the victim's father said, "I'm not rejoicing. I feel bad for [Miller's] family. But at least they can see him. What have we got but a gravesite and a photograph?"[21] C-Murder was sentenced on August 14 by District Judge Hans Liljeberg to mandatory life imprisonment.[3]
On August 27, 2009, Ernest Johnson, president of the Louisiana NAACP, requested an investigation into the jury deliberations.[22] C-Murder's financial woes reportedly landed him the help of two Harvard attorneys, one of them Ronald Sullivan, who have agreed to assist with his appeal. One of the jurors, Mary Jacob, said that both she and a fellow juror, a 20-year-old student at Xavier University of Louisiana, were verbally abused by fellow jurors for their decision to acquit. According to Jacob, the abuse resulted in her switching her verdict, saying, "They literally made this 20-year-old girl so violently ill, she was shaking so bad. She ran into the bathroom. She was throwing her guts up. She couldn't function anymore. That's when I decided, the judge don't want to listen to me, doesn't want to listen to us? I told them, 'You want him to be guilty? He's guilty; now let's get the hell out of here.'" This account was partially confirmed by another juror. At the time, a 10–2 consensus was sufficient for conviction in Louisiana but a 9–3 consensus would result in a mistrial.[23]
On December 28, 2011, his conviction was upheld.[24]
On February 19, 2013, the Supreme Court rejected Miller v. Louisiana, which was Miller's final appeal of his conviction. After a jury voted 10–2 to convict Miller, Miller's attorneys argued that because federal juries must reach unanimous verdicts in criminal cases, Miller should have not been convicted in Louisiana.[25][26]
On April 2, 2014, Miller's attorney, Rachel Conner, filed a post-conviction relief application in state court in Gretna. She raised 10 points to support her assertion that her client received no fair trial. Conner said she plans to raise additional points. Primary among the assertions is what she described as irregularities during the jury's deliberations, stating, "One juror cast a guilty vote not based on the evidence but because she wanted to end deliberations to protect another juror who refused to convict Miller but was targeted by other jurors to change her mind, Conner wrote."[27][28][29]
In August 2021, Miller went on hunger strike to protest his conditions, which he feared would result in his getting COVID-19, and the status of his trial, saying he believed the district attorney had withheld evidence.[30] That month, he hired civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump.[31]
Investigation Discovery Reasonable Doubt
In June 2018, Miller's case was featured on Investigation Discovery Reasonable Doubt. It was on this episode that Kenneth Jordan recanted and discussed his false testimony.[32] Jordan stated he was pressured by detectives to testify against Miller or he himself would have faced a 10-year prison sentence for unrelated criminal charges.[4] On July 6, another witness, Darnell Jordan, recanted his testimony, saying he was detained and locked in a hotel room by the police for refusing to testify against Miller.[33]
Michael Lawrence Tyler, better known by his stage name Mystikal, is an American rapper and actor from New Orleans, Louisiana. He is noted for brash, obstreperous vocal delivery, characterized by a Southern rasp. He signed with local record label Big Boy Records to release his self-titled debut studio album (1994), which was re-released by Jive Records the following year as his major label debut, Mind of Mystikal (1995). He then parted ways with the former label in favor of its local competitor, Master P's No Limit Records, through which he released his second and third albums, Unpredictable (1997) and Ghetto Fabulous (1998), as well as Goodfellas (1999) as a member of its flagship group, 504 Boyz. Following his departure from No Limit, he remained with Jive to release his 2000 singles "Shake Ya Ass" and "Danger ", which peaked at numbers 13 and 14 on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively. Both preceded the release of his fourth album, Let's Get Ready (2000), which debuted atop the Billboard 200.
William Jennings Jefferson is an American former politician from Louisiana whose career ended after his corruption scandal and conviction. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for nine terms from 1991 to 2009 as a member of the Democratic Party. He represented Louisiana's 2nd congressional district, which includes much of the greater New Orleans area. He was elected as the state's first black congressman since the end of Reconstruction.
Antoinette Renee Frank is a former officer of the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) who, on March 4, 1995, committed a violent armed robbery at a restaurant which resulted in the killing of two members of the Vietnamese-American family who ran the establishment, and fellow NOPD officer Ronald A. Williams II. She was aided by her probable lover, drug dealer Rogers Lacaze. Frank has been incarcerated since 1995 at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, the only woman on the state's death row.
McKinley Phipps, Jr., better known simply as Mac, is an American rapper from New Orleans' 3rd Ward. He began rapping as a child, releasing his debut album The Lyrical Midget at the age of 13 in 1990, under the stage name Lil Mac. Mac would eventually sign with Master P's No Limit Records and would grow to be one of the most critically acclaimed artists on the label, both as a solo rapper and as a member of the super group 504 Boyz. Mac released two solo albums and one album as part of the 504 Boyz on No Limit, including 1998's Shell Shocked, which peaked at No. 11 on the US Billboard 200.
The Angola Three are three African American former prison inmates who were held for decades in solitary confinement while imprisoned at Louisiana State Penitentiary. The latter two were indicted in April 1972 for the killing of a prison corrections officer; they were convicted in January 1974. Wallace and Woodfox served more than 40 years each in solitary, the "longest period of solitary confinement in American prison history".
Renée Gill Pratt is an American politician from New Orleans, Louisiana. She was also Director of the Center for Student Retention and Success in Southern University at New Orleans. On July 25, 2011, she was found guilty of racketeering. For this crime, she served a 4-year sentence.
Vincent Joseph Marinello was an American longtime sportscaster who was featured on WWL AM/FM radio and, previously, on WVUE and WDSU in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was later known as a leading media personality, covering aspects of the recovery of the city from the devastation following Hurricane Katrina. Before his arrest for the murder of his third wife, he served as an in-house television host and analyst at the Fair Grounds Race Course from 1990 until 2005. Marinello died in custody at Dixon Correctional Institute on February 21, 2020 of natural causes.
Gary Tyler, from St. Rose, Louisiana, is an African-American man who is a former prisoner at the Louisiana State Prison in Angola, Louisiana. He was convicted of the October 7, 1974 shooting death of a white 13-year-old boy and the wounding of another, on a day of violent protests by whites against black students at Destrehan High School in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana. He was tried as an adult and convicted of first-degree murder at age 17 by an all-white jury; he received the mandatory death sentence for that crime, according to state law. When he entered Louisiana State Prison (Angola), he was the youngest person on death row.
The John McDonogh High School shooting was a school shooting that occurred on April 14, 2003, at John McDonogh High School in the Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Two young teenagers shot and killed 15-year-old student Jonathan "Caveman" Williams during a mid-morning gym class in a gang neighborhood retaliation killing.
Ivory Brandon Harris, known as B-Stupid, is an American gangster from New Orleans, Louisiana, who gained notoriety when police accused him of committing murders in Houston and New Orleans. Following a 2006 arrest and 2007 plea deal, he is incarcerated in the federal prison system as of 2024.
The corruption case against then Louisiana Representative William J. Jefferson in the United States started on a suspicion of bribery. The FBI raided his Congressional offices in May 2006. He was re-elected to his seat in the fall. On June 4, 2007, a federal grand jury indicted Jefferson on sixteen charges related to corruption. Jefferson was defeated by Republican Joseph Cao on December 6, 2008, and was the most senior Democratic incumbent to lose re-election that year. In 2009 he was tried in the US District Court in Virginia on corruption charges. On August 5, 2009, he was found guilty of 11 of the 16 corruption counts. Jefferson was sentenced to 13 years on November 13, 2009 - the longest sentence ever given to a representative for bribery or any charge.
Michael J. Coppola, also known as "Mikey Cigars", is an American mobster and captain in the Genovese crime family active in their New Jersey faction. He made national headlines when he went into hiding for 11 years to avoid a possible murder conviction. He should not be confused with Michael "Trigger Mike" Coppola (1900–1966), also a member of the Genovese family.
Curtis Giovanni Flowers is an American man who was tried for the same murders six times by the same prosecutor in the U.S. state of Mississippi. Four of the trials resulted in convictions, all of which were overturned on appeal. Flowers was alleged to have committed the July 16, 1996, shooting deaths of four people inside Tardy Furniture store in Winona, seat of Montgomery County. Flowers was first convicted in 1997; in five of the six trials, the prosecutor, Montgomery County District Attorney Doug Evans, sought the death penalty against Flowers. As a result, Flowers was held on death row at the Parchman division of Mississippi State Penitentiary for over 20 years.
On the morning of September 4, 2005, six days after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, members of the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD), ostensibly responding to a call from an officer under fire, shot and killed two civilians at the Danziger Bridge: 17-year-old James Brissette and 40-year-old Ronald Madison. Four other civilians were wounded. All of the victims were African-American. None were armed or had committed any crime. Madison, a mentally disabled man, was shot in the back. The shootings caused public anger and further eroded the community's trust in the NOPD and the federal response to Hurricane Katrina overall.
Larissa Schuster is an American convicted murderer who was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2008 for committing the July 2003 murder of her estranged husband Timothy Schuster by submerging his body in hydrochloric acid. Due to the unusual manner in which she committed the murder, Larissa's case made national headlines. She has been dubbed "the Acid Lady" by various media outlets.
Travis Victor Alexander was an American salesman who was murdered by his ex-girlfriend, Jodi Ann Arias, in his house in Mesa, Arizona while in the shower. Arias was convicted of first-degree murder on May 8, 2013, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on April 13, 2015.
Widner DeGruy, also known by his stage name Flow, is an American rapper from New Orleans, Louisiana. He began his music career with hip hop group, The Flamez and is the CEO of Flame Gang Music. In 2012, he signed to Lil Wayne's label Young Money Entertainment. That same year, Flow formed another group called L.A.T. with rappers Gudda Gudda and Kevin Gates. Flow would tour with labelmate Lil Wayne.
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Len Davis is a former New Orleans police officer. He was convicted of depriving civil rights through murder by conspiring with an assassin to kill a local resident.
United States of America v. Joaquín Guzmán Loera was a federal criminal court case against Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, a Mexican drug lord and former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel. Guzmán was extradited from Mexico to the United States in January 2017, where he pleaded not guilty to all counts against him in Brooklyn, New York. His charges included drug trafficking, money laundering, and murder. His defense asserted that he was not the organized crime leader that the prosecution claimed. The trial, often characterized as a trial of the century, began on November 5, 2018, and lasted until February 12, 2019, when the jury returned a verdict of guilty on all counts. He was sentenced on July 17, 2019 to a prison term of life.
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