AllHipHop Reports
“Brutal” pressure to deliver a guilty verdict for No Limit rapper Corey “C-Murder” Miller could possibly work in favor of the recently imprisoned entertainer.
Despite casting the deciding vote twice in Miller’s much publicized murder trial, Mary Jacob now admits that she was not entirely convinced the 38-year rapper was guilty of killing Steve Thomas in the now-closed Platinum Club on Jan. 12, 2002.
According to reports, Thomas, 16, was shot through his heart while being stomped by a group of men during an event at the nightspot. A 10-2 verdict, the minimum required by state law for a second-degree murder conviction, was delivered on August 12 to seal Miller’s fate.
The rapper was sentenced to serve a mandatory life sentence in prison on August 14. Jacob’s decision to change her vote from innocent to guilty came after witnessing the emotional breakdown of a young juror who she felt was pressured by other jurors to side with those who believed Miller was at fault.
"This thing had to come to an end for this girl's health, her sanity," Jacob told The Times-Picayune about the 20-year-old Xavier University student who voted for the rapper's innocence. "I believe what happened to Steve Thomas on the floor of the Platinum Club happened to her verbally. "I was more worried about this little girl than I was about Corey Miller," added Jacobs, who still believes that prosecutors did not prove their case "beyond a reasonable doubt."
Steve Thomas
"Corey Miller will survive whatever happens to him," she said.
As jurors deliberated over the case, Jacobs noticed the physical toll the situation took on the student. The group was firmly split 9-3 in favor of conviction on their second day of deliberation.
However, the student’s condition ultimately swayed Jacob’s opinion as she chose the quickest way to end the young woman’s ordeal.
"They literally made this 20-year-old girl so violently ill," Jacob said. "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.'''
At this time, no comment was made by Miller's family, his former attorney, Ron Rakosky or the Jefferson Parish district attorney's office on Monday (Aug. 24) regarding the latest on the Miller/Thomas murder case.
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AllHipHop Reports
The NAACP is now involved in Corey “C-Murder” Miller’s homicide case, requesting that the Supreme Court step in over evidence of jury tampering.
Miller was sentenced to life in prison on August 11 for the murder of 16 year old Steve Thomas, who was shot after a 2002 altercation with the rapper in a Harvey nightclub.
The jury reached the conviction through a vote of 10-2. The ruling was controversial, as juror Mary Jacob claimed that her guilty vote made under pressure from fellow jurors to end the drawn-out trial.
She stated in an interview that she was verbally abused, and became physically ill during the sessions.
Judge Hans Liljeberg ordered another deliberation, which resulted in a second 10-2 verdict that was upheld.
Louisiana NAACP President Ernest Johnson wrote a letter to Chief Justice Catherine Kimble, calling for her court to conduct “a full investigation of this entire case, the immediate removal of the trial judge, the appointment of a new judge from outside the 24th Judicial District to hear all post trial motions, and the immediate release of Mr. Miller from prison pending a review of this entire matter because justice delayed is justice denied.”
At press time, the Louisiana’s Supreme Court has not released a statement on whether Miller’s conviction will be reviewed.
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