US rapper Lil' Kim sentenced to year in prison

NEW YORK - Rapper Lil' Kim has been sentenced to 12 months and a day in prison after admitting she was wrong to lie to a grand jury investigating two of her friends involved in a 2001 shooting outside a radio station.

She was also fined $50,000. The sentence was lenient compared to the 33 months that prosecutors sought in the high-profile case, which shed light on some of the complex rivalries in the hip-hop world.

Lil' Kim, whose real name is Kimberly Jones, was convicted in March of conspiracy and perjury for lying to a grand jury. The three perjury counts and the conspiracy charge carried maximum sentences of five years each.

Before her sentencing in federal district court in Manhattan, the Grammy Award-winning artist made a plea for leniency, admitting what she did was wrong.

"I testified falsely to the grand jury and during the trial. At the time, I thought it was the right thing to do. Now I know it was wrong," she said in court.

The case stems from a 2001 shootout with a rival hip-hop group involving two of her associates, Suif Jackson and Damion Butler. Both men have pleaded guilty to firing shots that injured one man.

Prosecutors said Lil' Kim tried to protect the two by telling the grand jury during its 2003 probe that Butler, one of her former managers, was not there that day and that she did not know Jackson.

She is due to report to jail on September 19.

In handing down the sentence, US District Judge Gerard Lynch said he was concerned the public would compare Lil' Kim's sentence to that of media mogul Martha Stewart, who spent five months in prison for lying about a stock trade, and question whether Lil' Kim was treated fairly.

The judge pointed out that the "younger African-American entertainer" lied twice about the shooting in what was "unquestionably a more serious case" than that of the "older, whiter" Stewart.

But in leaning toward leniency, the judge said he took into consideration that Lil' Kim admitted her guilt.

"You are sending that message that telling the truth has an important value," he said, noting such unsolved cases as rapper Tupac Shakur, who was gunned down in 1996. "Going to jail to protect violent men with guns is not heroic."

Lil' Kim apologised for putting a burden on her friends and family.

"This is by far the toughest thing I have ever had to go through," she told the judge in a quivering voice. "I am a God-fearing, good person."

- REUTERS