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Prosecutors used hip-hop lyrics to help sentence a man to death: 'This only happens to rap music'
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/apr/01/capital-punishment-hip-hop-rap-lyricsEd Pilkington -- TheGuardian
James Broadnax was a teenager when a jury convicted him of capital murder, with his rap lyrics presented as evidence he posed a threat of 'future dangerousness'
james Broadnax has been locked up in a 6ft-by-10ft cell on death row in Texas for more than 16 years, and in that time he has developed coping mechanisms for passing the long and desolate days.
A favourite technique is to write spoken word poetry at his cell desk. He becomes so engrossed in the creative process that he can lose himself for hours, transfixed in what he calls a "time gap". In one of his recent poems, featured in a short death row documentary, Solitary Minds, Broadnax, who is 37, describes how he writes:
Though his love of writing has remained constant, the form of Broadnax's poetry has changed over the years. Today it is spoken word, but as a teenager back in the aughts it was rap. Broadnax's dream was to become a successful rapper. He would fill entire notebooks with handwritten rap lyrics. Next month, that old habit could cost him his life.
Broadnax is set to enter the execution chamber in Huntsville, Texas, on 30 April. He will be strapped to a gurney and injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital - his life snuffed out in no small part because of the prosecutorial use, or misuse, of his poetry. In 2009, Broadnax, who is African American, was convicted along with his cousin of murdering two white men, Matthew Butler and Stephen Swan, during a robbery in Garland, Texas. He was found guilty by a jury from which Dallas county prosecutors had initially excluded all Black jurors, until the trial judge stepped in and reinstated one of them.
During the sentencing phase of Broadnax's capital trial, prosecutors presented the jury with 40 pages of the defendant's notebooks found in a suitcase after his arrest. The state carefully selected rap lyrics infused with violent images of murder, robbery and drugs, to make the case that Broadnax should be sentenced to death. Its lawyers skirted over lyrics addressing peaceful narratives such as redemption and love. For the ultimate punishment to be secured under Texas law, jurors would have to be persuaded that the defendant posed a threat of "future dangerousness".
. . .
A favourite technique is to write spoken word poetry at his cell desk. He becomes so engrossed in the creative process that he can lose himself for hours, transfixed in what he calls a "time gap". In one of his recent poems, featured in a short death row documentary, Solitary Minds, Broadnax, who is 37, describes how he writes:
"I've been here umpteen days never forgetting
To forget the absence of my fate.
Sloppy ciphered sentences become rage,
Provoking thoughts into words spoken
Across this blank page."
Though his love of writing has remained constant, the form of Broadnax's poetry has changed over the years. Today it is spoken word, but as a teenager back in the aughts it was rap. Broadnax's dream was to become a successful rapper. He would fill entire notebooks with handwritten rap lyrics. Next month, that old habit could cost him his life.
Broadnax is set to enter the execution chamber in Huntsville, Texas, on 30 April. He will be strapped to a gurney and injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital - his life snuffed out in no small part because of the prosecutorial use, or misuse, of his poetry. In 2009, Broadnax, who is African American, was convicted along with his cousin of murdering two white men, Matthew Butler and Stephen Swan, during a robbery in Garland, Texas. He was found guilty by a jury from which Dallas county prosecutors had initially excluded all Black jurors, until the trial judge stepped in and reinstated one of them.
During the sentencing phase of Broadnax's capital trial, prosecutors presented the jury with 40 pages of the defendant's notebooks found in a suitcase after his arrest. The state carefully selected rap lyrics infused with violent images of murder, robbery and drugs, to make the case that Broadnax should be sentenced to death. Its lawyers skirted over lyrics addressing peaceful narratives such as redemption and love. For the ultimate punishment to be secured under Texas law, jurors would have to be persuaded that the defendant posed a threat of "future dangerousness".
"Fade 'em, fade 'em,
Tape 'em up. I hit 'em later.
I am so high up and cloud proof, like a skyscraper."
. . .