Mysteriously, surveillance cameras at the studio failed to work at the time of the killing. Rincon testified it was fear for his and his mother’s safety that kept him quiet until now. These witnesses stayed silent for two decades. That sentence, along with testimony from Mizell’s assistant Uriel “Tony” Rincon and manager Lydia High, both in the studio at the time of the killing, sealed Washington and Jordan’s fate without the need for rap lyrics. The judge struck the leading questions but allowed an open-ended Q&A.Īsked what Washington told her about Mizell’s murder, the witness answered: “Um, he just said that he killed him.” Defense attorneys claimed prosecutors’ leading questions improperly coaxed the girlfriend of co-defendant Ronald Washington to finger him. “Juries, too, should not be placed in the unenviable position of divining a defendant's guilt, in whole or in part, from a musical exposition with only a tenuous relationship to the criminal conduct alleged.”Īlthough Judge DeArcy Hall banned rap lyrics in the courtroom, she also paved the way for Jordan’s conviction by denying a defense motion for a mistrial. “Music artists should be free to create without fear that their lyrics could be unfairly used against them at a trial,” the judge wrote. Nor did the judge’s ruling discuss the music video Jordan shot of himself dancing in front of a mural of Mizell, bragging about crimes but not specifically mentioning Mizell’s murder. But, of course, Jordan is not on trial for those crimes.” So the judge seems to be saying Jordan may well have shot a lot of people in the head, but since he didn’t name Mizell in the song, it’s inadmissible. Prosecutors tried to admit Jordan’s rap song “Aim For The Head,” including the line “we aim for the head, no body shots, and we stick around just to see the body drop.”īut Judge DeArcy Hall blocked the jury from hearing it and stated, “The lyrics from Jordan's song have the same nexus to any other headshot murder that took place before the lyrics were written. Judge DeArcy Hall wrote that “rap artists have become increasingly incentivized to create music about drugs and violence to gain commercial success, and will exaggerate or fabricate the contents of their music in pursuit of that success.” She also stated that “the Court must remain cognizant that ‘hip hop is fundamentally an art form that traffics in hyperbole, parody, kitsch, dramatic license, double entendres, signification, and other literary and artistic conventions to get it point across,’” quoting author and academic Michael Eric Dyson. Her order delves into rap’s cultural significance and socio-economic factors. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall barred prosecutors from using any rap lyrics whatsoever in a rousing ruling issued on the eve of trial. Very different outcome than at the Brooklyn trial, where U.S. So rap lyrics that appear to boast about a crime, recruit members or threaten potential witnesses might be admitted in the YSL trial. A rap song can’t be used only to show “bad character” or a defendant’s “propensity” to commit a crime, the judge ruled, but lyrics can be used to show “a gang’s organization and/or strength.” In Atlanta, Judge Ural Glanville ruled that rap lyrics and videos would be “conditionally admissible,” but the lyrics must be relevant to proving mens rea (consciousness that an act is illegal) or actus reus (an actual and specific crime). And he couldn’t use rap lyrics where Jordan specifically boasted about drug dealing and shooting people in the head. pulled the trigger in Mizell’s recording studio over a drug deal gone bad. It was a bumpier road in Brooklyn for prosecutor Artie McConnell, who needed to prove that Karl Jordan Jr.
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