Prosecutors used rap lyrics to help send a man to death row in Texas. It's not an uncommon tactic

Wait I thought that guy had an alibi. Wasn't he at Red Lobster???

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That sketch didn't come from thin air. It's been a long held discussion in the hip hop world

No. Dude wrote lyrics about gangster shit that we have no evidence he ever actually did any of and was not at all related to the crime he was accused of and then the prosecution used it as character evidence to secure the death penalty. Its more like if that Key and Peele skit got used to try to get a harsher punishment for Key or Peele

*dusts the ancient texts* "publiic enemy once decreed"

“How to cook people” “How to cook for people” “How to cook forty people” “How to cook for forty people”

Oh look it's my search history as a writer

Chicken and egg really. Let's not mince word, a lot of gangsters rap on the side. 21 Savage, NBA Youngboy, Bobby Schmurda, Tupac, Ice Cube, and Kevin Gates are all examples of famous rappers who have been arrested for doing the things they sing about. I won't deny that there is a racialized element, but there aren't many country singers being arrested for drug trafficking with multiple songs about their clandestine meth labs. Lyrics aren't securing convictions, but in cases where the defendant is a criminal who happens to sing about crime, yeah, they're seen as autobiographical and tied to existing cases at times.

Maybe because rap music was linked to gang life?

F*** around, get the whole label sent up for years

I love how on the Live From Folsom Prison album one of the inmates lets out a loud cheer right after Cash sings this line

Except thats not the equivalent situation here. The equivalent situation would be if during any of Johnny Cash's trials for drug possession, the prosecution had brought up that lyric as evidence that clearly he had actually murdered someone and didnt show any remorse over it and therefore should receive as harsh a penalty as the judge could give. For some reason, probably because it would be a f****** insane thing to do, none of them ever did that and the worst he ever got was a suspended sentence and fines. Nobody is arguing that direct confessions shouldnt be allowed just because theyre in song form. If someone sings or raps a detailed account of how they murdered someone who was found murdered in that specific way, sure thats evidence absolutely bring that up in court. The idea that you can use someones lyrics as evidence of their general character is much more contentious though. Johnny Cash most likely didnt actually shoot a man in Reno and we have 0 evidence he did so him singing he did should have no relevance in a courtroom. Likewise unless they have relevance to the case at hand, I dont see any reason rap lyrics should be brought up either

“Hogtie ’em and body bag ‘em. Send them to the mayor. Then /I bombed the whole country. Send/the press. The paper.” Nothing lyrical presented to the jury appears to be related to the crime and was instead intended to “establish his violent nature”. I mean, he was arrested along with his cousin a few hours later and the crime was not planned out. They got high on PCP and fucked up robbing somebody. He, in fact, did not bomb the whole country. Meanwhile, his cousin has confessed to being the shooter, which is corroborated with DNA evidence on the weapon. His cousin is not facing the death penalty.

Who the f*** are you arguing with?

How many innocent people are you willing to put to life on prison? Heck even not getting jail but being publicly accused will ruin lives and even lead to suicide, should we get rid of the whole system then?

What I don't get with rap, if you're committing a crime, why the f*** would you tell on yourself in your song? To me, it's not a flex, it's a special kind of stupid.

The article writes on the possibility that in some cases they may not have done so at all. The lyrics may, in some cases, have nothing to do with the crime in which they’ve been accused. Instead they’ve featured lyrical depictions of criminal behavior in the trial as a sort of testimony regarding the personal character of the accused individual. Since lot of music is just outright fictional, with lyrics that reflect very little on the actual life of the person who wrote them, this brings up ethical questions about the use of lyrics to demonstrate that someone is a criminal just because they wrote a song about criminal behavior. It’s not like Johnny Cash really shot a man in Reno to watch him die, or that Slayer ever actually made it “rain blood.” So there are legitimate concerns about where the line is drawn. I think a genuine 1:1 lyrical description of a murder that just so happens to match all the evidence is very probably indicative of guilt or at least of inside knowledge of a crime, but can prosecutors really treat it more or less the same as they would treat a sworn confession made knowingly by a someone who has sworn an oath to tell the truth? And what if the lyrics are just about murder more broadly, but contain no specific details that can be tied to the crime they’re accused of? Would it be ok for a prosecutor to suggest that somebody could be a murderer simply because they’ve written something that features depictions of murder? Ultimately I think this highlights the importance of hard evidence in proving someone’s guilt in a crime. I think that if a prosecutor needs to lean too heavily on some song lyrics to prove a connection between a crime and the person accused of it, then perhaps they never really had a very strong case to begin with. If they had evidence that could really firmly place a person at the scene of a crime at the exact time it occurred, then some lyrics they wrote at any point before or after it occurred would really just be added fluff for the jury, anyways. If their entire case hinges on some song lyrics to prove the accused person’s guilt, then I think there may be some room for reasonable doubts.