XXL Revisits Snoop Dogg's 1995 Murder Trial and Why So Many Fans Were Rooting for Him to Beat It

It is easy to forget now, but at the peak of Doggystyle, Snoop Dogg was on trial for murder. XXL's legal podcast Take It to Trial went back to that case this week, and one point kept coming up: a lot of fans wanted him to walk.

On the episode, XXL Editor-in-Chief Vanessa Satten and journalists Peter A. Berry and Bianca Torres break down the 1993 killing of Philip Woldemariam at a Los Angeles park. Prosecutors argued it was a gang-related shooting. The defense said Snoop's bodyguard, McKinley Lee, fired in self-defense after Woldemariam reached for a gun.

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The trial opened in late 1995, just down the hall from where the O.J. Simpson case had played out, and police had already admitted to accidentally destroying evidence, including shell casings and the victim's clothes, per UPI's archive. In February 1996, the jury acquitted Snoop and Lee of murder, and a judge declared a mistrial on the remaining voluntary manslaughter count. Prosecutors chose not to retry it.

The XXL crew's takeaway was that the public was firmly in his corner. Death Row labelmate 2Pac and MC Hammer were among those who openly backed him at the time, per The Boombox, and the case did little to slow down a career that is still rolling three decades later.

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Sources: XXL on X, Encyclopedia.com, Los Angeles Times archive, UPI archive, The Boombox

Can a good lawyer beat anything? Watch Rich Motion's breakdown above and subscribe at youtube.com/@RichMotion_Media.