Los Angeles - Prominent defense attorney
Chris Darden, a one-time member of the OJ Simpson prosecution
team who was representing the accused killer of Los Angeles
rapper-activist Nipsey Hussle, withdrew from the case on Friday,
citing threats against his family.
Darden had been defending Eric Ronald Holder, 29, who
pleaded not guilty on April 4 to charges of killing the Grammy
Award-nominated rapper and was ordered held on $5 million (about R70 million) bail.
In a post on Facebook, Darden wrote that he was withdrawing
from the case because he and his family had received threats.
"After centuries of a history of black men hung from trees
without trial, or after the thousands of cases of black men
tried, convicted and executed without counsel ... I cannot
understand why in 2019 some people would deny a black man his
6th Amendment right to counsel of his choice," Darden wrote.
"Or why defending such a man should invite threats not only
against me but against my children too," he added.
Darden became famous worldwide in the 1990s when, as a Los
Angeles County deputy district attorney, he unsuccessfully
prosecuted former football star Simpson for murder. Since then,
Darden has been working as a defense attorney.
"Just as they were in 1995-Cowards never change," Darden
wrote. "These days these cowards don’t send letters, instead
they sit anonymously behind keyboards threatening a man’s mother
and children."
Hussle, whose real name was Ermias Asghedom, was shot
multiple times on March 31 outside his Marathon Clothing store
in south Los Angeles. Two other people were wounded by gunfire.
Investigators have said they believe the slaying was
motivated by a personal dispute between Holder and Hussle.
If convicted, Holder faces a maximum sentence of life in
prison without the possibility of parole.