Grammy-winning rapper Lik Durk has been cleared of all federal charges after a Los Angeles jury acquitted him in a 2022 murder-for-hire case.
During a trial that lasted for three days, the jury at a Los Angeles court acquitted Banks on Friday, September 11, in his federal lawsuit.
The federal grand jury began deliberations on Wednesday, September 9, and reached a verdict on Friday afternoon, as per the Department of Justice.
As the jury delivered the verdict, a large gathering of fans and content creators gathered outside the downtown LA courthouse.
Lil Durk, also known as Durk Banks and two others were charged with stalking and murdering a man in an ambush near an L.A. shopping centre in 2022.
All My Life hitmaker Banks was accused of hatching a murder plot to kill Tyquian Bowman, a competitor from Atlanta rapper known as Quando Rondo.
The prosecutors alleged that Banks conceived the murder plot of Bowman as revenge after one of his associates killed a close friend of Banks’, Dayvon “King Von” Bennett, in 2020.
However, the plot was ill planned and resulted in the killing of Bowman’s cousin, Saviay’s Robinson, 24.
Robinson was murdered in broad daylight on August 19, 2022.
Banks pleaded not guilty to all the federal charges, with his attorneys arguing it was actually Banks’ former staff member, Kavon Grant, who hatched the murder plot.
At least for now, Banks remains in police custody as he awaits a second trial involving several counts of racketeering murder scheduled next month.
If convicted on all counts, Banks could face a life imprisonment in federal prison.
