Rap Producer Loses Bid for Early Prison Release

Rap music entrepreneur Marion “Suge” Knight has lost the latest round in his attempt to gain an early release from prison.

The California Court of Appeal has denied a new hearing for Knight, who was sentenced to nine years in prison in 1996 for a probation violation. The ruling reverses a previous order made by the same three-judge appellate panel.

Although Knight plans to appeal the decision to the California Supreme Court, he could end up serving out the remainder of his sentence before the case gets reviewed. Knight’s attorneys speculate that the rap entrepreneur could be free within a year, but government sources suggest that, even with time off for good behavior, Knight must serve another two to five years before being released.

Knight, the owner of Beverly Hills-based Death Row Records, was imprisoned after a judge determined that he had violated his probation by kicking a man during a scuffle at a Las Vegas hotel. Knight had been on probation since 1995, when he pleaded no contest to two counts of assault stemming from a 1992 attack on two aspiring rappers in a Hollywood recording studio. Under a plea bargain in that case, a judge imposed a suspended nine-year prison term and five years’ probation.

Two and a half years ago, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge J. Stephen Czuleger said that under the terms of the plea bargain he had no choice but to send Knight to prison for nine years for violating his probation. Knight appealed the ruling last June, arguing that he should be released from prison because the plea agreement that he signed was invalid. Knight’s lawyers also contended that the judge was not required to impose the maximum nine-year sentence.

In August, the appellate court overturned the lower court ruling, vacated Knight’s nine-year sentence and ordered a new sentencing hearing for him. In March, the attorney general argued that the trial court’s sentencing of Knight was proper and that the appellate court made its earlier ruling based on factual error regarding sentencing procedures.

On April 28, the appellate court agreed and issued a new order rejecting Knight’s request for a hearing, ruling that the judge had properly ordered Knight to prison for nine years.