C-Murder Loses Latest Appeal

C-Murder isn't likely to see a new trial anytime soon.

On Tuesday, Louisiana's Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the hip-hopster's request for a hearing before the entire panel to consider tossing his second-degree murder conviction, according to defense attorney, Ron Rakosky.

"We applied for a re-hearing and the court denied most of those requests," Rakosky told E! Online. "We now have 30 days to appeal to the [Louisiana] Supreme Court."

C-Murder, whose birth name is Corey Miller, was convicted on Sept. 30, 2003 of shooting to death 16-year-old Steve Thomas outside the Platinum nightclub in the New Orleans suburb of Harvey. He is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

However, in April 2004, State District Judge Martha Sassone granted the gangsta rapper a new trial on the grounds that prosecutors withheld key information about witnesses called to implicate him.

That ruling, however, was overturned in a 2-to-1 decision by a state appeals court that declared "there was an abundance of other evidence which fully established Miller's guilt."

With his appeal denied Tuesday by the entire state appellate court, C-Murder's hopes now rest with Louisiana's Supreme Court, where Rakosky feels confident the appellate body will uphold the trial judge's decision to toss his conviction.

"[The state court ruling] is basically irrelevant to the issue," said the legal eagle. "The trial judge granted him a new trial because it was in the interest of justice to do so."

Rakosky noted that such a ruling is at Sassone's discretion based on the facts and the record and is not grounds enough for the appeals court to overturn.

"Our position is the court of appeal used the wrong standards to review the case," the attorney added. "It's virtually unheard of for them to reverse that."

C-Murder, who's being held in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna, Louisiana, blamed the failure of his latest appeal in part on the controversy caused by the behind-bars recording of his latest album and the jailhouse shoot for his latest video.

Local jail Sheriff Harry Lee made headlines last month after expressing anger that Miller recorded 27 tracks of new material from the clink and had the chutzpah to shoot a music video for the album's first single, "Yall Heard of Me." The disc, The Truest S--t I Ever Said, hit stores last Tuesday.

In an interview with the Associated Press on Tuesday, Miller said the negative press generated by that dispute may have unduly influenced the courts to ignore his plight.

"I think all of that plays a part, 100 percent. You've got that sheriff on TV saying he wants revenge," he said. "How can I win when it comes to a decision that determines my life?"

Lee, who claimed he never granted permission for the video shoots, ended up barring Rakosky from carrying pens into meetings with his client, thinking the attorney must have abetted the rapper in smuggling out rhymes for his album via the pens' hollowed out cylinders.

Rakosky however laughed off such insinuations.

"First of all, nothing that I did was illegal and involved sneaking anything in or out of the jail, so all of these rules having to do with extra scrutiny with me are really irrelevant," the legal eagle said.

He noted: "Everything we did involving the recording of that album was done on the up-and-up with the deputies walking by and it was really a reaction by a sheriff who was embarrassed by the whole scenario."

Miller isn't the only member of his family in trouble with the law these days.

C-Murder's brothers, Master P and Silkk the Shocker were arrested on Feb. 1 and charged with carrying unregistered loaded guns after police stopped their car near the University of California, Los Angeles.

Both rappers pleaded innocent to the charges at their arraignment on Wednesday.