Texas rapper Travis Scott and Young Thug are among 30 artists, activists and actors asking the U.S. Supreme Court to pause the state's death row execution next month for a man convicted of capital murder in Dallas County.
James Broadnax is scheduled to die April 30 for shooting and killing Christian music producers Stephen Swan, 26, and Matthew Butler, 28, in June 2008 in a Garland recording studio parking lot.
LA-based Music Artists Coalition, co-founded by Eagles front man Don Henley of Dallas, is also among the execution stay supporters.
In 2009, Dallas County prosecutors, led by attorney David Alex, used rap lyrics that James Broadnax wrote to help get the death penalty instead of life in prison.
People may not understand that musicians' rap lyrics are not necessarily realistic, according to the Supreme Court brief filed on behalf of Houston rapper Travis Scott.
“Judges and jurors unfamiliar with the genre may not know to separate a rapper’s actual life from the pop culture image he or she seeks to project as an artist, just as implicit bias may encourage associations grounded in racial stereotypes between genre and artist,” the brief reads.
It also includes an excerpt from artist and music executive Jay-Z's 2010 memoir, "Decoded."
“[t]he art of rap is deceptive," he said in the book. "It seems so straightforward and personal and real that people read it completely literally, as raw testimony or autobiography.”
Lawyers have filed Supreme Court appeals within the last month hoping to temporarily stop the execution and have time to more carefully review evidence and procedures from the trial, said media representative Allen Ripp of New York.
The legal team, led by Steven Herzog, who filed Supreme Court appeals say characterizing Broadnax's lyrics as "gangster rap" was racially biased.
They say his civil rights were violated during trial because Black jurors were excluded from serving.
Then, at age 19, Broadnax told KXAS-TV, NBC in an interview from jail that he was ready to face any justice.
"Whatever they throw at me. hopefully the death penalty."
"If they give me life I'm going to kill somebody else. straight up. I'm telling you right now. I can't do no mother [expletive] life. I'm gonna go crazy."
He laughed about the murders during the interview, saying people would do the same to him.
"Just like when they stick that damn needle in my arm, and they gonna laugh at me," he said. 'Look at that n[expletive]. Dumb mother[expletive].' You know how y'all is, dog."
His Supreme Court petition says "he was under the influence of drugs during those interviews, and that statements given under his then-mental conditions were inherently unreliable.”
The brief filed by the supporters, spearheaded by Grammy-award winning rapper Killer Mike, is led by attorney Chad Baruch of Dallas.
He said the prosecution left no room for a chance at Broadnax receiving life in prison instead of death by execution.
"The state used rap lyrics that he had and posted on social media during the sentencing phase to argue that his lyrics demonstrated a propensity for continuing violence and also undercut any idea of mitigating circumstances and made him an appropriate candidate for the death penalty," he said. "So essentially the state used the rap lyrics to try to persuade the jury to sentence him to death as a continuing criminal danger.”
Craig Watkins was Dallas County's Criminal District Attorney during the trial, but current DA John Creuzot and assistant DA Michelle O'Brien Yeatts filed a brief to the Supreme Court opposing the request to pause the execution.
"It is well-established generally that rap
lyrics are admissible punishment evidence," Creuzot's opposing brief says. "Broadnax’s equal protection claim, alleging the State’s use of his rap lyrics was part and parcel of its race-based practices, falls equally flat."
Creuzot's brief also cites that sentencing with regard to rap lyrics had not been argued in Broadnax's prior state appeals.
Baruch said allowing murder trial evidence based on someone's literary interests is "incredibly disturbing."
“If Johnny Cash had been accused of murdering his neighbor, no judge in America would have allowed the prosecution to introduce a video of him singing about shooting a man in Reno just to watch him die," he said. "And no one would even be asking the question as to why we exclude that. Everyone in America will understand, 'yeah, that's not actual evidence that he committed this crime.' But that's what happened in this case.”
"We have the justice system blessing this practice when it comes to rap, when it would never be tolerated with any other of artistic expression.”
Broadnax has become a model prisoner who reads, writes, and plays chess, and was selected by the prison to be a peer counselor for other inmates, according to his lawyers.
He is a Chris Young Foundation youth mentor and active in the Allan B. Polunsky Unit faith-based program.
Plans are underway for Broadnax to wed his fiancée, a U.K.-based attorney, by the end of the month.
Got a tip? Email Marina Trahan Martinez at mmartinez@kera.org. You can follow Marina at @HisGirlHildy.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.
