Texas prosecutors didn't just play a defendant's rap lyrics for jurors—they handed over 40 handwritten pages, and the jury chose death over life in prison. That 2009 sentencing of James Broadnax, a Black man convicted of killing two white men during a 2008 robbery, is now before the US Supreme Court, the New York Times reports. His lawyers say prosecutors leaned on racist stereotypes by using his "gangsta rap" as proof he was a continuing danger to society, a requirement under Texas death penalty law. The nearly all-white jury twice asked to review the lyrics before deciding his fate. On Monday, some of hip-hop's biggest names—including Killer Mike, T.I., Young Thug, Fat Joe, N.O.R.E., and separately Travis Scott—urged the justices to step in.
In friend-of-the-court briefs, they argue that prosecutors treated Broadnax's lyrics as a confession rather than fiction, while other genres get a pass. "No matter how beautiful it sounds, or how horrific it may sound, it's still just art," Killer Mike said, adding, "It is not an admission of guilt." Scott's brief says that allowing a death sentence "based in any part on protected artistic expression" violates the First Amendment and basic due process. Race is central to the challenge. Prosecutors used peremptory strikes to remove all seven Black prospective jurors; only one Black juror was seated, after a judge expressed concern but declined to find intentional discrimination. Broadnax was 19 at the time of the crime. His supporters say his lyrics also contained themes of regret and redemption that prosecutors ignored.
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