Did Bob Marley really shoot the sheriff? Of course not. These were just lyrics to a song. Right?
In State v Vonte Skinner, the New Jersey Attorney General’s office recently argued that an accused’s rap lyrics (depicting fictional, yet arguably criminal, acts), should be admissible as evidence of a man’s motive and intent to kill another:
I’m the dude to shoot at ya’ neck, shatter your life like a bottle of Becks.
One and only to slice a dude like bologna, you don’t know me.
I’ll watch you pricks die slowly, lay you stiff like a trophy.
The trial court had admitted the lyrics, and the defendant was convicted. The New Jersey Supreme Court disagreed with the decision to admit the evidence, and, after conducting an analysis under Rule 404(b), held that probative evidence may not be found in an individual’s artistic endeavors absent a strong nexus between the composition and the circumstance. “The difficulty in identifying probative value in fictional or other forms of artistic self-expressive endeavors is that one cannot presume that, simply because an author has chosen to write about certain topics, he or she has acted in accordance with those views.”
So unless the lyric has a direct connection to the specific offense, prosecutors are apparently out of luck because the information will unduly influence the jury. A psychiatric study cited in a related case (analyzing the biasing effects of gangsta’ rap lyrics on juries), demonstrates that the New Jersey Court might just be right.
To date, Michigan has not addressed this issue. What do you think?