During his recent interview with HipHopDX, McKinley “Mac” Phipps expressed how he wished no ill will towards the jury for handing down a verdict which has been unraveling to be incorrect for the past fifteen years.
Now, the former star on Master P’s No Limit Records is getting a co-sign from someone closest to the man he allegedly killed.
The victim’s fiancée.
On Feb. 21, 2000, 19-year-old Barron “Bookie” Victor Jr. was fatally shot outside a Sidell, Louisiana nightclub and Mac, who had been the most person of note on the scene, was arrested and later charged with the crime.
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“No murder weapon was ever found,” Mac told DX. “The state had about two witnesses who told conflicting stories and one of them even, in court on the stand, admitted that she did not tell the truth about what she really saw and eventually she would tell the reporters of the Huff Post that she was coerced at the time to even make the accusation in the first place. She was threatened by the prosecution and DA at the time. And by the way, that DA is under federal indictment at this time. His name is Walter Reed. He’s been indicted for unrelated federal charges that have nothing to do with my case but it just shows the pattern of misconduct from the department.”
There were truth to his words. Just last month, Reed, 69, was convicted of conspiracy, wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering and making false statements on his tax returns. He will be sentenced at a later date.
Speaking with the Huffington Post, Samantha Barnes still longs for her slain husband-to-be but also believes Mac caught a raw deal.
“I feel like a lot of people knew about this,” Barnes told The Huffington Post. “And I don’t understand why. … But I don’t think it’s fair that an innocent person is behind bars.”
Huffington Post reports that Yulon James, who, was a pregnant nursing student at the time of the trial, now admits she “didn’t see anything” after she was coerced into making a statement for her own well being.
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“The DA came over to my parents’ house and told me I would have my baby in prison if I didn’t testify,” James told them.
On the Hip Hop front, the likes of Killer Mike, Dee-1 and more have been campaigning for Mac to be granted clemency and credited with time serve through a petition that has since amassed more than 8,000 signatures.
“I can’t imagine what both of these mothers [Victor and Phipps] are going through,” Barnes continued. “You have one whose son is dead, and you have another whose son is innocent and has been behind bars all this time. It’s devastating.”
Watch the announcement for the The Truth, The Way, and The Light documentary below.
