Tory Lanez Attorney Calls Out DNA Evidence in Appeal Hearing

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Still looking to overturn his convictions – and 10-year prison sentence – in the much-publicized Megan Thee Stallion case, Tory Lanez has come up short with a pair of habeas petitions. However, the rapper’s main appeal is proceeding and received a new hearing today.

The older of the developments technically arrived last week, when a three-judge panel denied the two petitions seeking either an evidentiary hearing or a fresh sentence, reporter Meghann Cuniff summed up.

Keeping the focus on brass-tacks takeaways here, the appeals judges specifically rejected Lanez’s assertions of DNA-testimony shortcomings (pertaining to the firearm allegedly used to shoot Megan Thee Stallion) during trial, to name one example.

“Aside from the fact that petitioner is contending that his own DNA expert failed to provide industry-accepted methodology, this issue could have been, but was not, raised on appeal in the context of ineffective assistance of counsel,” the judges wrote.

Shifting gears to the core appeal, the case “was riddled with numerous errors,” Lanez attorney Crystal Morgan told the panel today.

“We believe the most compelling arguments are the testimony of Ms. Kelsey Harris when looking at the confrontation clause, prosecutorial comments in the opening and closing statements, and Brady violations that cumulatively occurred throughout the trial,” Morgan said.

Harris is Megan Thee Stallion’s friend and, besides reportedly identifying Lanez as the shooter pre-trial, allegedly cast doubt upon her prior claims while on the stand.

“As Ms. Harris stated, ‘I didn’t tell the truth.’ So we can’t rely on these statements from her own words. And this did greatly prejudice [Lanez]. Because in that interview [with the DA’s office], Ms. Harris said, ‘My friend and I were attacked, and it was this man’s fault.’

“Then at trial, she did not verify those statements. But the jury still heard” and relied upon the comments, Morgan indicated, driving home Lanez’s alleged inability to confront the witness during the trial.

From there, Morgan described several other remarks from the prosecution that allegedly misled jurors.

“There were also problems in closing arguments, which contained inaccuracies – and it presented the evidence in a way that misconstrued the actual results,” Morgan relayed. “Here, I’m specifically talking about the DNA evidence.

“As far as the firearm goes, they also found four different [DNA] samples, one of which was a 90% male contributor. But [Lanez] was excluded from being that 90% contributor. Therefore, telling the jury [during closing arguments] don’t be fooled when you hear he’s excluded is just not quite as the evidence showed.

“If our jury had heard that [Lanez] maybe one in a million touched the gun, I believe that would have been enough to tip that scale and show reasonable doubt for them to find him not guilty. The jury just didn’t hear that,” the attorney said after describing the scientific details associated with the DNA evidence.

Of course, these are only some of the many angles behind the appeal, which the prosecution is rather unsurprisingly opposing.

During today’s hearing, this opposition largely reiterated the remarks of witnesses and Lanez himself during and shortly following the night in question. But it’ll be worth keeping an eye out for the appellate court’s ruling moving forward.