Houston rapper Travis Scott is among several artists backing a Dallas County man scheduled to be executed next month, arguing prosecutors used rap lyrics to secure his sentence in violation of his constitutional rights, according to documents obtained Monday by The Dallas Morning News.
James Broadnax, 37, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on April 30 in Huntsville. He was condemned in 2009 for the deaths of Stephen Swan, 26, and Matthew Butler, 28, outside their Garland music studio.
Broadnax, formerly of Texarkana, was 19 at the time of the murders. According to previous reporting from The News, Broadnax and an accomplice planned to rob Swan and Butler the night of the shooting, but left with only $2 in cash and a 1995 Ford.
Broadnax, a Black man, has previously argued his capital murder trial infringed on his constitutional rights, citing the 14th Amendment’s guarantees of equal protection and due process. Before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Broadnax claimed prosecutors used race as a basis to strike prospective jurors — leaving him with a nearly all-white jury — in addition to contesting the admission of more than 40 pages of handwritten rap lyrics as evidence.
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On Monday, Dallas appellate attorney Chad Baruch took the latter to the United States Supreme Court, filing an amicus brief backed by more than 30 artists, scholars and music industry leaders, including Killer Mike, Young Thug, T.I., Anthony Anderson and Kevin Liles.
“In too many instances, we have the justice system blessing this practice when it comes to rap, when it would never be tolerated with any other kind of artistic expression,” Baruch said in a video statement sent to The News.
In the brief, Baruch wrote Broadnax’s trial was riddled with racial stereotypes and anti-Black rhetoric, including using his lyrics to paint him as a danger to the public.
In Texas, jurors in capital murder cases determine whether the defendant will be sentenced to death or life without the possibility of parole. To do so, they must decide whether there is a probability the defendant would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society.
During deliberations, the jury asked to review the lyrics twice — including just hours before sentencing Broadnax to die.
Among the lyrics read in court were: Fade ‘em, Fade’em. Tape ‘em up. I hit ‘em later. I am so high up and cloud proof, like a skyscraper. Hogtie ‘em and body bag ‘em. Send them to the mayor. Then I bombed the whole country. Send the press. The paper.
Then, during closing arguments, a freestyle court documents say he wrote from jail: Hold up. Stop and rewind. A little story while I’m in this bitch. Yeah, I hit the lick. I got two murder charges on me. I might just go to the Judge and tell him I’m going to merk him, because I’m J.B.
“If that’s not the sign of a psychopathic killer, I don’t know what is, folks,” the prosecutor said, according to court documents.
But according to Baruch, the lyrics were “irrelevant” and lacked any “factual nexus to the case.”
He argued prosecutors urged the jury to consider the lyrics as literal rather than metaphoric expressions.
“The State used Broadnax’s artistic expression to portray him as young Black super-predator without redeeming qualities who must be executed to protect the community,” the brief reads. “The State’s use of Broadnax’s artistic expression to trigger racial and anti-rap fears and biases was a dangerous circumvention of constitutional guarantees that must not be allowed to stand.”
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