Travis Scott, Young Thug Petition Supreme Court Over Use of Rap Lyrics in Death Sentence

Travis Scott, Young Thug, Killer Mike, and a number of other artists and scholars have petitioned the Supreme Court to halt the execution of James Garfield Broadnax, a 19-year-old Black man whose rap lyrics were used in his sentencing. In Scott’s brief, he argues that the lyrics’ inclusion not only violates Broadnax’s First Amendment rights, but that “taking rap music out of context subjects the entire genre to prosecution.”

In 2009, a Texas court convicted Broadnax of killing two people during a robbery near the city of Garland. After his conviction by a primarily white jury, prosecutors introduced 40 pages of Broadnax’s handwritten lyrics into evidence. The jury reviewed the documents twice and moved to sentence Broadnax to death over life without parole, per the New York Times. In February, Broadnax’s legal team filed a brief calling for a “Writ of Certiorari,” which would mandate SCOTUS to review the lower court’s decision. Broadnax’s execution is scheduled for April 30.

Scott filed his supporting brief with SCOTUS on March 9. “The prosecutors argued Mr. Broadnax was likely to be dangerous in the future simply because he engaged in ‘gangster rap,’” Scott’s brief notes. “Such an argument functionally operates as a categorical and straightforwardly unconstitutional content-based penalty on rap music as a form of expression.” The brief, which cites reporting on the issue from the Fader, Complex, the New Yorker, and more, urges SCOTUS to “clarify the constitutional limits” of using “protected artistic expression as evidence of criminal propensity.”

Killer Mike and additional artists state in a separate brief, also filed on March 9, that Broadnax’s lyrics were irrelevant to his trial, as they were not cited during arguments over his guilt and were not introduced until the sentencing phase. “This case exemplifies the racial prejudice that infects a criminal proceeding when the State uses a defendant’s rap lyrics to capitalize on anti-rap bias, the misinterpretation of rap lyrics, and anti-Black bias triggered by rap music,” the filing reads.

Killer Mike has worked on similar briefs before. In 2015, he filed a brief in support of a high-school student who was suspended over the lyrics of a song he wrote—SCOTUS ultimately declined to hear the case. Killer Mike, Chance the Rapper, Meek Mill, 21 Savage, and more also collaborated on a brief tied to the 2019 trial of Jamal Knox, a Pennsylvania rapper who was charged with terroristic threats and witness intimidation over song lyrics. In that case, SCOTUS ruled that Knox’s lyrics were not protected by the First Amendment.

The use of rap lyrics in criminal trials has become a key topic of debate in recent years, most prominently in a 56-count indictment brought against Young Thug and his Young Stoner Life (YSL) collective over RICO Act violations. In 2022, the New York State Senate passed a bill that limited how prosecutors can use song lyrics and other forms of “creative expression” as evidence in criminal cases. The same year, a similar bill in California became law. A federal bill on the topic, the RAP Act, was reintroduced to Congress in 2023, but has yet to pass.

Revisit Marc Hogan’s feature What Young Thug and Gunna’s Indictment Means for Rap Music on Trial.