Overview
- Travis Scott’s legal team, including attorney Alex Spiro, filed an amicus brief arguing it is unconstitutional to use a Black defendant’s rap lyrics to help justify a death sentence.
- A separate brief from a coalition including Killer Mike, Young Thug, T.I., Anthony Anderson, and Kevin Liles—backed by about 30 artists and scholars and six arts groups—presses the Court to reject such evidence.
- Both filings stress that Broadnax’s lyrics were introduced only during the punishment phase to argue future dangerousness, not during the guilt phase of the trial.
- The briefs say prosecutors presented the lyrics to a nearly all-white jury and contend the move invited racial and anti-rap bias under the guise of assessing character.
- Broadnax is scheduled for execution on April 30, and his lawyers have asked the Supreme Court to halt it and grant review, while Texas has argued the defense raised lyric objections too late and that the material was limited in scope.