Second Witness Recants Testimony Identifying C-Murder as Gunman in 2002 Nightclub Shooting
Both key witnesses in the trial of C-Murder for his alleged role in a fatal 2002 nightclub shooting have recanted their testimony identifying the rapper born Corey Miller as the gunman.
The Times-Picayune reports that Darnell Jordan sent a handwritten letter to the 24th Judicial District Court on Monday (July 2) that claims the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office "tricked" him into identifying C-Murder as the shooter.
Jordan says authorities arrested and detained him as a material witness until he agreed to testify against the rapper in Miller's original 2003 trial, which resulted in a retrial, and in his 2009 trial, which ended with Miller's life sentence. Jordan also claims his testimony was based on a piece of paper handed to him by Sheriff's Office Detective Donald Clogher.
"I was scared of them," Jordan wrote in his affidavit. He added, "I am certain that Corey Miller did not shoot Steve Thomas."
The report comes less than a week after the other witness in the 2009 trial, Kenneth Jordan, also recanted his testimony. In his own affidavit, Kenneth Jordan claims detectives coerced him into identifying C-Murder as the shooter in 2003 by threatening to charge him for the death of his then-recently deceased newborn child. During Miller's retrial in 2009, Kenneth Jordan told police that his 2003 statement was wrong, but they still forced him to testify, he says.
When C-Murder found out that Jordan recanted his testimony, he spoke from prison over the phone with WDSU. "I want him to know I’m not upset with him. I’m proud of him. And me and my family, and my daughters. My daughters, we thank him. For real. This is a life-changing moment," he said.
"I'm not gonna lie. These last 16 years have been a definite struggle. I've been snatched away from my family, separated from my kids, from my career, everything. And I just want it back. My heart hasn't smiled since I've been locked up for 16 years, and I just want them to know that my heart is smiling," Miller continued.
C-Murder's attorney Paul Barker has petitioned the court to vacate the conviction and order a new trial. "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 memorandum filed on Monday.
Miller, the brother of Master P and Silkk the Shocker, has consistently maintained his innocence from behind bars. Earlier this year he joined a hunger strike protesting conditions at the state penitentiary in Angola, La.
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