Texas executes man after being sentenced to death over rap lyrics
The state of Texas has executed a man by lethal injection after using his rap lyrics against him.
37-year-old James Broadnax was convicted in 2009 of double murder, with prosecutors introducing his lyrics in deciding whether he should be put to death.
According to Rolling Stone, he was killed at the Texas State Penitentiary on April 30th, becoming the third inmate to be executed by the state this year.
Broadnax was accused of killing two music producers in Garland in a 2008 robbery and sentenced to death.
His cousin and co-defendant, Demarius Cummings, recently confessed that he was the shooter, not Broadnax. He claimed Broadnax took the blame because he had no criminal history; however, the appeal was rejected.
Travis Scott defended Broadnax earlier this year, filing a brief arguing that the use of rap lyrics at trial was “unconstitutional.”
His brief read, “The prosecutors argued Mr Broadnax was likely to be dangerous in the future simply because he engaged in ‘gangster rap.’ Such an argument functionally operates as a categorical and straightforwardly unconstitutional content-based penalty on rap music as a form of expression.”
He added, “At a certain level of abstraction, the reality is even more problematic: taking rap music out of context subjects the entire genre to prosecution.”
A collective of rappers, including T.I., Young Thug, and Killer Mike, also filed a joint amicus brief. “Exaggerated tales of violence, sex, and criminal behaviour sell to a broad swath of Americans – and any would-be gangsta rapper must learn and practice these conventions of the form,” their brief said.
It continued, “This case exemplifies the racial prejudice that infects a criminal proceeding when the State uses a defendant’s rap lyrics to capitalise on anti-rap bias, the misinterpretation of rap lyrics, and anti-Black bias triggered by rap music.”