Knight Faces Resentencing, May Be Freed

LOS ANGELES‹A California appellate court says Death Row Records owner Marion "Suge" Knight, imprisoned since late 1996 for violating his probation in a 1995 assault case, is entitled to a new sentencing hearing, which could lead to the jailed executive's release (BillboardBulletin, Sept. 2).
In February 1997, Knight was sentenced in L.A. Superior Court to nine years in California state prison after a judge ruled that he had violated probation by participating in a brawl on Sept. 7, 1996, at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas (Billboard, March 15, 1997). Death Row artist Tupac Shakur was mortally wounded in a drive-by shooting later that night.
Reviewing an appeal by Knight's attorneys, the Second District of the California Court of Appeal dismissed several of the defense's contentions, including claims that his probation revocation was based on perjured police testimony and that his 1995 plea bargain was invalid because of misrepresentations on the part of the prosecutor.
However, the three-man appellate panel vacated Knight's nine-year sentence upon review of the trial judge's statements during sentencing in 1995. In the words of its ruling, "It is impossible to determine . . . whether Knight was initially sentenced and the sentence suspended or whether the imposition of sentence itself was suspended."
A new sentencing hearing, which a legal source says may take place within 40-50 days, could result in Knight's freedom, since the appellate court stated, "In imposing sentence on Knight the trial court shall have authority to choose from all the initially available sentencing options."