Overview
- Two amicus briefs filed this week ask the Court to take up Broadnax’s case, including a Chad Baruch–led filing backed by roughly 30 artists and scholars plus six arts groups and a separate brief from Travis Scott’s legal team.
- Both filings argue Dallas County prosecutors violated the First Amendment by using Broadnax’s rap lyrics during the punishment phase to argue future dangerousness, exploiting anti-rap and racial bias before a nearly all-white jury.
- Prosecutors introduced more than 40 pages of handwritten lyrics only at sentencing, and jurors twice requested to review them before voting for death rather than life without parole, according to court records and prior reporting.
- Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot urged the Court to deny relief, asserting rap lyrics are generally admissible as punishment evidence and saying Broadnax’s equal-protection claim and related arguments are procedurally deficient.
- The Supreme Court has not acted on Broadnax’s request for a stay or review, and Texas law’s requirement to find a continuing threat at sentencing underscores the stakes of admitting creative expression as evidence.