Jail sentence for

rapper who skipped jury duty is upheld by appeals court

MUNFORD

[email protected]

Rapper Jermaine

Dupri Mauldin will get a taste of the real "Hard Knock Life"

after all.

Fayette County

sheriff's deputies are on the lookout for Dupri, a resident of north Fayette

County, so he can serve his three-day sentence for skipping jury duty

in March 1999. Mauldin originally appealed the sentence, but it was recently

upheld by the Georgia Court of Appeals.

The rapper,

who is on the SoSoDef Recordings label, has said he was out of town performing

in the "Hard Knock Life" rap concert in New Jersey when he failed

to show for jury duty here.

Superior Court

Judge Christopher Edwards eventually found Mauldin to be in contempt of

court for not reporting to jury duty. Edwards sentenced the rapper to

three days in jail, which was put on hold for the appeal.

In the Court

of Appeals ruling, the judges made it clear that Mauldin willingly refused

to return for jury duty. They also refuted that the three-day jail sentence

was "cruel and unusual punishment," as Mauldin claimed.

"Mauldin

... made the conscious choice to instead honor a previously made commitment,"

the court wrote. The court also said the three-day sentence was justified

for missing three days of jury service.

Mauldin had

been notified he was scheduled to serve jury duty for the week of March

1. He appeared that day and was asked to return two days later, which

he admits he didn't do.

Mauldin claims

one of his attorneys tried to gain a waiver of jury duty from the court.

However, an employee at the clerk's office notified the attorney such

a waiver would not be granted, according to court records.

Previously,

the rapper had received three different jury waivers, each postponing

his jury service until another date.

The attorney

later claimed that the rapper could not be reached to notify him that

the waiver was not granted. Instead, Mauldin "assumed" he would

be granted another waiver, he said.

At a hearing

before Judge Edwards on the matter, Mauldin's attorneys indicated he wanted

to apologize to the court. In a court document, one of his attorneys indicated

he would be willing to perform community service, such as speaking to

a youth group.