{"id":197304,"date":"2026-03-09T22:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T22:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/197304\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T22:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T22:38:07","slug":"travis-scott-among-artists-fighting-use-of-rap-lyrics-in-dallas-county-death-penalty-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/197304\/","title":{"rendered":"Travis Scott among artists fighting use of rap lyrics in Dallas County death penalty case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Houston rapper Travis Scott is among several artists backing a Dallas County man<\/a> 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. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Broadnax, formerly of Texarkana, was 19 at the time of the murders. According to previous reporting<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Broadnax, a Black man, has previously argued his capital murder trial infringed on his constitutional rights, citing the 14th Amendment\u2019s guarantees of equal protection and due process. Before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Broadnax claimed prosecutors used race as a basis to strike<\/a> prospective jurors \u2014 leaving him with a nearly all-white jury \u2014 in addition to contesting the admission of more than 40 pages of handwritten rap lyrics as evidence.<\/p>\n

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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. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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,\u201d Baruch said in a video statement sent to The News. <\/p>\n

In the brief, Baruch wrote Broadnax\u2019s trial was riddled with racial stereotypes and anti-Black rhetoric, including using his lyrics to paint him as a danger to the public.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

During deliberations, the jury asked to review the lyrics twice \u2014 including just hours before sentencing Broadnax to die.<\/p>\n

Among the lyrics read in court were: Fade \u2018em, Fade\u2019em. Tape \u2018em up. I hit \u2018em later. I am so high up and cloud proof, like a skyscraper. Hogtie \u2018em and body bag \u2018em. Send them to the mayor. Then I bombed the whole country. Send the press. The paper.<\/p>\n

Then, during closing arguments, a freestyle court documents say he wrote from jail: Hold up. Stop and rewind. A little story while I\u2019m 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\u2019m going to merk him, because I\u2019m J.B.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that\u2019s not the sign of a psychopathic killer, I don\u2019t know what is, folks,\u201d the prosecutor said, according to court documents. <\/p>\n

But according to Baruch, the lyrics were \u201cirrelevant\u201d and lacked any \u201cfactual nexus to the case.\u201d <\/p>\n

He argued prosecutors urged the jury to consider the lyrics as literal rather than metaphoric expressions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe State used Broadnax\u2019s artistic expression to portray him as young Black super-predator without redeeming qualities who must be executed to protect the community,\u201d the brief reads. \u201cThe State\u2019s use of Broadnax\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Live Nation, U.S. Justice Department reach court settlement<\/a>Botham Jean\u2019s family sues in effort to force Dallas to pay jury award for his 2018 murder <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston rapper Travis Scott is among several artists backing a Dallas County man scheduled to be executed next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[815,294,102,581,104,103,2315,1282],"class_list":{"0":"post-197304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-courts","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-county","12":"tag-dallas-headlines","13":"tag-dallas-news","14":"tag-death-penalty","15":"tag-garland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}