In December 2014,
Northwestern University'sMedill Justice Project in partnership with The Lens published the results of a three-month investigation of Phipps' conviction, revealing that a key eye-witness at his trial gave his private investigator an affidavit in 2013, which stated she was coerced into identifying Phipps as the shooter because of investigators' threats to charge her.
[7]Following Medill's investigation, The Huffington Post's
David Lohr published the results of a four-month review of Phipps' conviction,
[8] further revealing that four other witnesses to the shooting told HuffPost they also were threatened, intimidated or outright ignored by investigators. Phipps' family has since obtained affidavits
[9] from many of the individuals in an effort to get him a new trial.
On March 25, 2015, nationally known rapper Michael Render, better known as
Killer Mike, told students at
Dillard University that it was unacceptable for authorities to use rap lyrics in the prosecution of Phipps. "If we let this stand, what you're going to see is that tool is going to be used to wipe out an entire potential generation of [artists] out of our community," Killer Mike told students gathered inside Cook Auditorium.
[10]