Suge Knight, the original Founder of Death Row Records, has failed to overturn his 28-year prison sentence for a 2015 hit-and-run manslaughter case. A Los Angeles judge denied his petition, citing a late filing and evidence deemed “not sincere.”
On March 4, Judge Laura F. Priver rejected Knight’s writ of habeas corpus, filed in March 2023. Knight argued his sentence was illegally imposed, citing factors like his permanent prison housing, lack of legal assistance, the pandemic, and his blindness in one eye as reasons for the delay in filing.
However, Judge Priver stated that Knight had enough time to submit the petition and had filed other motions in the past. “It is clear that the petitioner was not as isolated or as helpless to act as he wishes this court to believe. He was able to file the writ in a timely manner had he chosen to do so,” she wrote.
Knight’s lawyer, David Kenner, criticized the ruling, calling it “shocking and unconscionable.” He plans to challenge the decision in an appellate court.
Knight, the Death Row Records founder, is currently serving a 28-year sentence in San Diego after pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter. He was initially charged with murder for allegedly running over businessman Terry Carter outside Tam’s Burgers in Compton, California, in 2015. Prosecutors claimed Knight acted intentionally after being turned away from a meeting related to the film Straight Outta Compton.
