Rashad Griffith @ShadiG_7 - Twitter Profile

I wanted to shed some light on a case that I’ve been working on for years… Corey Miller has spent 21 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, and his conviction is based entirely on the testimony of two men, whom the State dragged to trial just on material witness warrants. Those men have now sworn that their prior testimony was untrue. There is no remaining evidence that even suggests that Corey Miller is any more culpable than the hundreds of patrons who were at the Platinum Club on January 12, 2002, when Steve Thomas was tragically shot. Rather than search for the real perpetrator of the crime, the local sheriff’s office zeroed in on proving a case against Mr. Miller. The lead detective harassed multiple witnesses and mishandled the case to such a degree that the trial court had no choice but to grant Mr. Miller a new trial after he was convicted in 2003. In 2009, four months before Mr. Miller’s second trial, his attorney attempted to withdraw and complained he had not been paid in years. The new judge refused to allow counsel to withdraw, and Mr. Miller stood trial for a second time with an attorney who made no effort to call favorable witnesses to testify. The State’s case was minimal, limited to the now recanted testimony of Darnell and Kenneth Jordan, and rather than call the five defense witnesses who testified at the first trial that Mr. Miller was not the shooter, trial counsel played the audio of their testimony for the jury. Even with the lack of a vigorous defense, the jury recognized obvious issues with the State’s case and deliberated for over 24 hours. After being sequestered overnight, the jury attempted to return a 10-2 verdict, with one juror stating she was only voting guilty “under duress.” The court returned the jury to deliberations and the juror changed her vote from “guilty under duress” to “guilty.” The same juror spoke to the local newspaper the day after the verdict and confirmed that she did not believe the State proved Mr. Miller was guilty, but voted guilty to end deliberations. Mr. Miller was convicted by a 10-2 verdict, which the Supreme Court has since held violates the Sixth Amendment right to a trial by jury, while not applying retroactively. Louisiana recently enacted a new law that provides innocent people with the ability to raise a post-conviction claim of factual innocence. Mr. Miller has raised such a claim and, like all of his prior post-conviction filings, has been denied relief without even so much as an evidentiary hearing. In light of the fact that the only witnesses have completely recanted their testimony, there is absolutely no remaining evidence against Mr. Miller. Corey Miller deserves a day in court to test the veracity of the recanted statements and to prove that he did not shoot Steve Thomas. If you agree that Corey Miller deserves his day in court please repost this. While I strongly believe in Corey's innocence, my heart goes out to the victims- and I pray for their healing and the closure that they deserve.

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