![]() After hearing the lyrics, along with the other evidence against the defendant, the jury convicted him. The defendant wrote the lyrics years before the shooting occurred. In 2014, the New Jersey Supreme Court decided the appeal of a man named Vonte Skinner, in which the defendant's rap lyrics were admitted at his trial for attempted murder and related charges. ( See the ACLU's "friend of the court" brief submitted in the case discussed just below.) The American Civil Liberties Union ("ACLU") has determined that courts in New Jersey alone admitted defendants' rap lyrics into evidence at trial in almost 80% of cases examined. In recent years, courts in several states have allowed prosecutors to introduce rap lyrics written by defendants into criminal trials as evidence of motive and intent. To read about this interpretation of rap lyrics, see Online Threats versus The First Amendment. Lyrics can themselves be criminal, as a threat of violence towards a victim. This article is about using rap lyrics as evidence of motive and intent when the defendant is charged with a particular crime. Isn't rap an expression entitled to First Amendment protection? What do lyrics prove anyway? In courts around the U.S., criminal defendants are being confronted with rap lyrics they've written as evidence against them in a crime. ![]() Turns out, he might have been telling the literal truth. When Ludacris rapped that he's " so illegal with the pen," we thought he was speaking figuratively to make a point about his way with words. ![]()
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