Tory Lanez has not suddenly been declared innocent by an appeals court over the shooting of Megan Thee Stallion.
Following unsubstantiated reports spread by the nonprofit Unite the People that Lanez had been found innocent after previously being convicted of the shooting, legal reporter Meghann Cuniff debunked the rumors.
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“Just got home from the World Series and learned some people spent their Friday night spreading lies about Tory Lanez’s appeal for shooting Megan Thee Stallion. No, the appellate court has not declared Lanez ‘innocent.’ Not even close,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Cuniff, who has dilligently covered the high-profile and often contentious case, then explained: “All the court did was consolidate Lanez’s habeas petition and his actual appeal. They haven’t ruled on anything yet and it’s pathetic that this trash website amplifies outright lies, even when the court document is right there staring everyone in the face.”
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Cuniff then pointed out that “this is an entirely new habeas petition. He has one in from last year about the driver’s statement, but according to the docket his lawyers filed another one this week. Which makes the idea that the court somehow granted it even stupider. [The Attorney General] hasn’t.”
She continued: “The Unite the People group posted the document on Instagram and falsely said the court accepted Lanez’s innocent claim. It would be great if they could post the actual petition so we don’t have to wait for me to get it from the court on Monday. What’s this new petition about?
Just got home from the World Series and learned some people spent their Friday night spreading lies about Tory Lanez’s appeal for shooting Megan Thee Stallion.
No, the appellate court has not declared Lanez “innocent.” Not even close. pic.twitter.com/kVYRSSFfBM
— Meghann Cuniff (@meghanncuniff) October 26, 2024
“I think some people get tripped up by the phrase ‘good reason appearing’ and somehow equate that with the court agreeing with every single thing in every one of Lanez’s filings.
In this context, the judges mean they looked at the new petition and determined it shouldn’t be considered alone. Instead, there is good reason for it to be considered with the existing appeal.”
Cuniff further criticized Unite the People by saying: “Unite the People is the same group that falsely reported the appellate court had freed Lanez from prison. They even told his father that.
“The group seems to struggle with correctly interpreting court actions for the public, and we should keep that in mind moving forward.”
In their original Instagram post, Unite the People falsely claimed: “The Appellate Court JUST ‘ACCEPTED TORY LANEZ ACTUAL INNOCENCE CLAIM!!!’ The court ordered Attorney General to respond on or before November 20th 2024.”
Tory Lanez was found guilty in December 2022 of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
Jurors agreed with the prosecution’s argument that he fired several shots at Megan Thee Stallion during a drunken dispute in July 2020 following a party at Kylie Jenner’s home, wounding her feet.
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He was later sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Lanez has repeatedly maintained his innocence and has continued to try and get his conviction overturned.
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His most recent attempt was hoping that a statement from his driver Jauquan Smith claiming that he saw Megan’s friend Kelsey Harris holding a gun would be used to toss out his sentence.
Smith said in his affidavit, which was part of a habeas petition filed in December by Tory’s appellate lawyers, that he didn’t actually see who pulled the trigger.
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In response, Deputy Attorney General Michael C. Keller ruled that the statement cannot be classified as new evidence and cannot be used to overturn Lanez’s conviction.
For his reasoning, Keller cited previously undisclosed statements from the rapper’s previous lawyer, George Mgdesyan, who decided not to call Smith to the witness stand during the December 2022 trial.
