Jam Grasp Jay Trial Decide Denies Bid To Use Lyrics As Proof

Prosecutors didn’t persuade a New York decide to confess Karl Jordan Jr.’s rap lyrics and movies as proof within the Jam Grasp Jay homicide trial. In accordance with court docket paperwork obtained by AllHipHop, Decide LaShann DeArcy Corridor denied the prosecution’s movement looking for approval of the proof on Tuesday (January 30).

“Right here, as proof of his guilt, the Authorities seeks to confess Jordan’s lyrics: ‘I intention for the top, I ain’t a physique shooter’ and ‘we intention for the top, no physique photographs, and we stick round simply to see the physique drop,’” Corridor wrote. “In the end, Jordan’s lyrics don’t embody any particular info that may relate to his participation within the homicide alleged on this case. Jordan’s lyrics don’t point out [Jam Master Jay], the recording studio through which [he] was killed, the opposite taking pictures sufferer, or any alleged accomplices. Nor does the Authorities declare that Jordan wrote or carried out these lyrics across the time of the alleged homicide … These lyrics merely include generic references to violence that may be discovered in lots of rap songs.”

Decide Corridor additionally dismissed the benefit of lyrics concerning Jordan’s alleged admissions of drug dealing. The decide cited Migos as one instance of how lyrics didn’t present proof of drug trafficking.

“The Authorities’s request to confess lyrics discussing ‘breaking down bricks’ fares no higher,” Decide Corridor defined. “That’s, ‘breaking down bricks’ doesn’t bear a particular nexus to the underlying offense conduct alleged on this case. Nonetheless, the Authorities argues that these lyrics describe Jordan’s function within the drug distribution conspiracy that, because the Authorities alleges, precipitated the alleged homicide.”

She continued, “Nevertheless, rap songs regularly reference the idea of ‘breaking down bricks,’ that’s, repackaging kilograms of medication to distribute in smaller portions … Jordan’s lyrics are just too imprecise, not like lyrics which have been discovered to elucidate a defendant’s ‘most popular course of for making ready and delivering medication’ or ‘refer[ed] to the minimal amount of unlawful medication’ that the federal government alleged a defendant bought.”

Decide Corridor stated courts ought to be “cautious” of guidelines permitting using rap lyrics and movies in felony trials. She agreed people ought to face penalties for confessing to “unmistakable particulars of their crimes,” however proof can’t be based mostly on “perceptions” of creative references.

“Not one of the lyrics the Authorities seeks to confess as proof of Jordan’s guilt bear any nexus to the felony conduct alleged on this case,” the decide dominated. “And, Jordan’s assertion that he raps about his lived expertise can’t alone function an alternative to the requisite nexus. As a result of the proffered lyrics should not have a adequate nexus to the charged drug conspiracy, they’re inadmissible.”

Jordan and his co-defendant Ronald Washington are on trial for the 2002 homicide of Jam Grasp Jay. A 3rd defendant, Jay Bryant, will likely be tried individually.

Opening statements started on Monday (January 29). Prosecutors stated Jam Grasp Jay’s killers have been motivated by greed after getting reduce out of a drug deal.

Prosecutors knowledgeable Decide Corridor they might have to deal with a few of their witnesses as hostile within the trial. Names of the doubtless hostile witnesses have been redacted in public court docket data.