C-Murder's name was killing his chances in court, or so he thought.
As a result, the rapper, born Corey Miller, has changed his name to C-Miller, according to his publicist at Koch Records.
The younger brother of rap mogul Master P said he was "not a murderer" in a statement released Tuesday.
Miller, who recently lost an appeal for his second-degree murder conviction, said he changed his stage name in hopes that future juries or parole board members might not be prejudiced by the provocative rap name.
"People hear the name C-Murder and they don't realize that the name simply means that I have seen many murders in my native Calliope projects neighborhood," the rapper stated.
Miller, who grew up in New Orleans and is currently being held in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna, Louisiana, hopes the name change will bring about understanding.
"From the beginning, I have been a target because of who I am, my stage name and for my success as an entertainer and the success of my siblings," he said in the statement released Tuesday.
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.
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 last month by the entire state appellate court, Miller's hopes now rest with Louisiana's Supreme Court, where his lawyer, Ron 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," Rakosky told E! Online last month. "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."
Miller blamed the failure of his latest appeal in part on the controversy caused by the behind-bars recording of his latest album, Koch's The Truest S--t I Ever Said, and a surreptitiously shot jailhouse video, which angered and embarrassed prison officials.
"You've got that sheriff on TV saying he wants revenge," Miller told the Associated Press last month. "How can I win when it comes to a decision that determines my life?"
Now, the hip-hopper's publicists have set up a press conference in Louisiana Wednesday to specifically reveal how Miller's civil and constitutional rights have been violated.
It's not clear if Miller's famous brothers, Master P and Silkk the Shocker are scheduled to attend the conference. The two have their own problems, albeit much smaller ones, in California.
P and Silkk 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 pleaded not guilty last month on the unregistered firearms charge and are due back in court Apr. 18.