{"id":62199,"date":"2022-08-31T22:45:08","date_gmt":"2022-08-31T22:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/rappers-say-prosecutors-guilty-of-double-standard-when-using-their-lyrics-in-courts\/"},"modified":"2022-08-31T22:45:08","modified_gmt":"2022-08-31T22:45:08","slug":"rappers-say-prosecutors-guilty-of-double-standard-when-using-their-lyrics-in-courts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/rappers-say-prosecutors-guilty-of-double-standard-when-using-their-lyrics-in-courts\/","title":{"rendered":"Rappers say prosecutors guilty of double standard when using their lyrics in courts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n CNN<\/span>
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Atlanta-area District Attorney Fani Willis is unabashed in using rap lyrics to help prosecute her cases, repeatedly defending the practice in recent months. It’s a tactic hip-hop artists have decried as a racist double standard for years.\n <\/p>\n

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In May, following the arrests of Atlanta’s Young Thug Gunna, a 56-count indictment Willis, who helms the Fulton County prosecutor’s office, included the artists’ lyrics among sweeping that they violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Among those cited were the Thugger lyrics, \u201cI’m prepared to take them down\u201d and \u201cI never killed anybody but I got something to do with that body.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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This week, Willis, who is African American, again said she would be leaning on lyrics in another RICO case prosecuting 26 alleged members of the Drug Rich Gang, who are charged with kidnappings, armed robberies, shootings and high-profile home invasions.\n <\/p>\n

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Among the targeted were singer Mariah Carey, Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley and Atlanta United goalkeeper Brad Guzan, according to a 220-count indictment.\n <\/p>\n

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\u201cI think if you decide to admit your crimes over a beat, I’m going to use it,\u201d she said, deflecting criticism. \u201cI’m not targeting anyone, but however, you do not get to commit crimes in my county and then decide to brag on it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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She added, \u201cI have some legal advice. Don’t confess to crimes on rap lyrics if you do not want them used.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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Following the Young Thug and Gunna indictments, Willis flatly told reporters she was a believer in the First Amendment, but nothing in the amendment precludes prosecutors from using lyrics as evidence.\n <\/p>\n

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She’s right, but there is a large contingent of artists, lawyers, professors and politicians working to change that.\n <\/p>\n

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\u201cThere’s a void in the law and the void allows abuse, and we’ve been trying to fill the void by changing the laws statutorily across the country so that everybody \u2013 which is everybody, and I mean everybody \u2013 gets their right to a fair trial,\u201d said attorney Alex Spiro, who represents rappers including Jay-Z, Meek Mill and 21 Savage.\n <\/p>\n

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Spiro sent a letter this year to the New York Legislature in favor of S7527, colloquially dubbed the \u201crap music on trial\u201d bill. The proposed legislation, which passed the Senate in June but has yet to navigate the state Assembly, would limit \u201cthe admissibility of evidence of a defendant’s creative or artistic expression against such defendant in a criminal proceeding.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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Along with his superstar clients, Spiro was joined by Andrea Dennis and Erik Nielson, authors of \u201cRap on Trial: Race, Lyrics and Guilt in America,\u201d who have repeatedly said they know of hundreds of cases where rap lyrics were weaponized against defendants, and they suspect far more did not draw public attention.\n <\/p>\n

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California lawmakers passed a similar bill this year requiring courts \u201cto consider specified factors when balancing the probative value of that evidence against the substantial danger of undue prejudice.\u201d It awaits the governor’s signature.\n <\/p>\n

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At the federal level, Reps. Hank Johnson of Georgia and Jamaal Bowman of New York introduced the Restoring Artistic Protection Act in the US House in July, which would limit \u201cthe admissibility of evidence of an artist’s creative or artistic expression against that artist in court.\u201d The bill hasn’t reached the floor for a vote.\n <\/p>\n

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In a news release, Johnson quoted a federal judge’s 2021 finding in a Philadelphia rapper’s case: \u201cFreddy Mercury did not confess to having ‘just killed a man’ by putting ‘a gun against his head’ and ‘pulling the trigger.’ Bob Marley did not confess to having shot a sheriff. And Johnny Cash did not confess to shooting ‘a man in Reno, just to watch him die.’ \u201c\n <\/p>\n

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Spiro previously served as a Manhattan prosecutor and worked with a unit examining potentially wrongful convictions. He’s seen lyrics introduced in court many times, including during bail hearings in which prosecutors alleged a defendant must be a gangster because of his lyrics and the way he spoke, \u201cwhich is mind-boggling and absurd,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

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\u201cI always worry in this country when the quantum of proof that should be needed in a criminal case, somebody has to try to use music lyrics to bolster that level of proof \u2013 especially with the tortured history in this country of not having people in the system treated the same as others,\u201d he told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

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Asked if it mattered in the Atlanta cases that Willis is Black, Spiro said, \u201cNo.\u201d Further queried on whether he’d witnessed cases in which artists from a traditionally White genre such as country or rock had objectionable lyrics leveraged against them, the attorney replied, \u201cOf course not.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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Atlanta’s Killer Mike, who has been outspoken on the topic, was encouraging his Twitter followers to read Dennis and Nielson’s book this week while pointing out what he sees as the double standard at play. Nancy Crampton-Brophy, the rhymesmith noted, was convicted of killing her spouse, but prosecutors had to win the case without a key piece of evidence after the judge barred them from admitting her essay, \u201cHow to Murder Your Husband,\u201d because it had been written years earlier.\n <\/p>\n

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\u201cShe was still convicted but her rights upheld. Accepting a double standard is dangerous is all I say,\u201d Killer Mike tweeted.\n <\/p>\n