A coalition of artists, entertainers, music industry leaders and professors, including Grammy Award-winning rapper Killer Mike, Young Thug, T.I., "Blackish star" Anthony Anderson, and music executive Kevin Liles, have filed an amicus brief challenging the use of rap lyrics during the punishment phase of a Dallas County capital trial, arguing that prosecutors improperly relied on artistic expression to support a death sentence.
In total, the brief is supported by 30 artists and scholars, and six arts organizations.
Professor Erik Nielson, one of America's leading authorities on hip-hop culture, took the lead in the effort.
The brief urges the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the use of rap lyrics as evidence that a defendant poses a continuing threat to society, a determination Texas juries must make before imposing the death penalty. The filing contends that prosecutors used defendant James Broadnax's artistic expression to stoke racial and anti-rap bias with the jury.
"Rap lyrics are creative expression," said Texas appellate attorney Chad Baruch, who is the lead counsel on the brief. "When prosecutors treat them as literal evidence of future violence, they invite jurors to decide a death-penalty case based on fear and stereotypes instead of the law."
The brief also argues that the absence of Broadnax's lyrics from the guilt/innocence phase of the trial is, in effect, an admission by the state of its lack of relevance to the case. Broadnax is scheduled to be executed April 30.
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