YNW Melly mistrial - other rappers who were not guilty

Rapper Snoop Dogg, right, real name is Calvin Broadus, and his bodyguard McKinley Lee await the reading of a verdict in his murder trial 20 February 1996. POO/AFP via Getty Images)

One of the most high-profile court cases this year hit another roadblock as it concluded as a mistrial. Rapper YNW Melly was facing double murder charges to which he pleaded not guilty.

Melly - whose real name is Jamell Demons - faced two -first-degree murder charges for the October 2018 killings of Anthony Williams and Christopher Thomas - both members of the YNW collective.

It was announced on July 22 that after a 19-day trial, the jury had failed to reach a unanimous decision.

It remains to be seen whether there will be a retrial for the case and when this could be.

Melly isn’t the only rapper to avoid a guilty verdict in court. NationalWorld explores other instances.

Diddy

Back in 2002, Diddy (or Puff Daddy/ P. Diddy) was on trial after al altercation at Club New York resulted in his labelmate Jamal ‘Shyne’ Barrow pulling out a gun.

Shots were then fired widely into the air injuring three bystanders. Diddy and Shyne were arrested shortly after the incident. Shyne was charged with attempted murder and weapon possession charges, while Diddy faced several weapon charges.

Diddy was eventually acquitted but Shyne was sentenced to 10 years for reckless endangerment, criminal possession of a weapon, and other charges.

Snoop Dogg

Snoop Dogg's career could have taken a major turn in 1993 as he faced murder charges.

After his features on Dr Dre's The Chronic and his debut album Doggystyle, Snoop looked set for a successful career.

That nearly all changed in 1993 when Snoop and his bodyguard intervened in a heated argument where the bodyguard ended up pulling the trigger.

Maintaining it was self-defence, the pair eventually beat murder charges and were acquitted. From this comes the famous image of Snoop bowing his head in prayer as the verdict was read out.

Lil Boosie

In 2009, Baton Rouge rapper Lil Boosie dodged a possible life sentence in prison for a murder charge. The rapper whose real name is Torrance Hatch was accused of paying $2,800 to a man to kill Terry Boyd in October 20, 2009.

After just an hour of deliberating, the jury found Boosie not guilty of murdering Terry Boyd, and thus Boosie beat overwhelming odds in the case where the defence had not even called a single witness.

Gucci Mane

In 2006, murder charges against Gucci Mane were dropped before his trial even began. Six months after he was indicted for the fatal shooting of Henry Lee Clark III, the DeKalk County district attorney's office dropped the charges due to a lack of evidence against Mane whose real name is Radric Davis.

He admitted to shooting his assailants during the incident in May 2005 and thus the act was ruled self-defence

Gucci Mane walked away from the crime scot-free.

DaBaby

Controversial rapper DaBaby hit headlines for his homophobic comments at Rolling Loud festival in 2021. But it was an incident three years before this that landed him in serious legal trouble.

Back in 2018, DaBaby was at a Walmart in Charlotte, North Carolina where an altercation broke out with a 19-year-old named Jaylin Craig.

It resulted in the fatal shooting of Craig which DaBaby - real name Jonathan Kirk - maintains was self-defence.

The case was closed in June 2019 and DaBaby wasn't prosecuted as the authorities agreed he had acted in self-defence.