He's full of bravado, and he spins all these tales about murder and slinging drugs. And I'm thinking now, with this best-selling hip-hop artist named Rick Ross - Rick Rose (ph) Ross - 'cause that's how he says his name. And I wanted to ask if you know how many cases nationwide where this has come up and tell us your perspective on it.īUTLER: Well, there have been more and more prosecutors using the work of artists against them. I know you recently spoke on a panel about this. MARTIN: OK, let's hear from Paul Butler on this. And that's, oftentimes, what happens in these rap songs, and they just simply set it to music. As you know, one of the cultural issues with gang life is bragging about gang life. JACKSON: Probably as many different iterations as your imagination could conjure up are the number of ways that we've come across this, from finding in a suspect's backpack a notebook that is filled with one rap song after another, after another.Īnother iteration is when we find a CD in somebody's possession that's been disseminated throughout the gang or throughout the neighborhood, simply listening to that song or those songs or those series of lyrics might lend itself to some relevant evidence, something that suggests either a confession, bragging, things of that nature. ![]() MARTIN: Can I just ask you how you happened upon this as evidence? Thinking back to your first case. Very seldom, I think, would there ever be a prosecution that the sun rises and falls on simply the rap lyrics or a gangster rap song. Now it's important to note that it's something to be used in conjunction with other evidence. JACKSON: Generally speaking, Michel, it's utilized to prove motive, intent, identity, absence of mistake - those types of things. Can you just generally tell us when and why you think they are admissible? During your time at the LA District Attorney's Office, you introduced rap lyrics as evidence, as I said, in a handful of cases. Jackson, thank you so much for joining us as well.ĪLAN JACKSON: It's my pleasure. He joined us from NPR West, which is in Culver City, California. He's a former Los Angeles County prosecutor who introduced rap lyrics as evidence in a handful of murder cases, and he's written about prosecutions of gang cases. He is a partner with Palmer, Lombardi and Donohue. ![]() He's also the author of "Let's Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice," with us from our bureau in New York City. He's a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center. MARTIN: We wanted to look at this issue a bit closer, so we've called upon Paul Butler. In Virginia, prosecutors hope these lyrics by Antwain Steward, known as Twain Gotti, will help convict the rapper of double homicide. The issue is, is rap evidence - that is to say can rap lyrics be used as evidence in a criminal proceeding. Almost as long as there has been rap music, it's been debated whether rap is art, and you can talk among yourselves about that later.īut now there is another debate. I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |