Howard students help a rapper request a new trial after lyrics were used as evidence

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JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

A California rap artist who is in prison for murder will soon find out if his conviction will be thrown out. At issue is whether he got a fair trial. NPR's Kristin Wright reports.

(SOUNDBITE OF PUBLIC ENEMY SONG, "FIGHT THE POWER")

KRISTIN WRIGHT, BYLINE: Music makes us feel something. It's powerful and complicated. Over the years, the lyrics in hip-hop and rap music have triggered hearings on Capitol Hill, parental warning labels and played a role in some criminal cases.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FIGHT THE POWER")

PUBLIC ENEMY: (Rapping) Our freedom of speech is freedom of death. We've got to fight the power. Fight the power.

RONNIE LOUVIER: A lot of people who rapped were getting unfair shots at trial. We're getting racially biased against - by us rapping.

WRIGHT: That's rapper Ronnie Louvier speaking to NPR from prison. He was convicted of murdering 17-year-old Marquise Washington in San Francisco in 2009. Prosecutors used Louvier's rap lyrics, written in a notebook, as evidence. He says he's innocent and that his lyrics were not a confession of killing Washington. Louvier alleges the prosecution conflated fact with fiction.

LOUVIER: When the law comes and they say, oh, this person is rapping, he raps about violence, and sometimes they look at us like this is really us and this is things that we're doing.

WRIGHT: In Washington, D.C., students in Howard University Law School's Criminal Justice Clinic took a special interest in this case. Stayce Evans says rap and hip-hop face a different standard than other types of music in the court of law.

STAYCE EVANS: This is kind of an attack on the art as a means to an end just to secure the conviction, and I don't agree with that.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THIS IS AMERICA")

CHILDISH GAMBINO: (Rapping) This is America. Don't catch you slipping now. Don't catch you slipping now. Look what I'm whipping now. This is America.

WRIGHT: Evans and his classmates helped Louvier's attorney request a new trial under California's Racial Justice Act. The law has led to the courts reconsidering old cases. It limits the use of rap lyrics and other creative expression in criminal proceedings. The goal is to prevent negative stereotypes and racial discrimination from tainting the legal process. Louvier is Black. His attorney, Marc Zilversmit, says the prosecution and an expert witness repeatedly quoted and referenced Louvier's lyrics to argue he was violent and a threat.

MARC ZILVERSMIT: There was racially discriminatory language when they used the N-word and when they used the animal imagery and compared Ronnie to an animal.

WRIGHT: But San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins says the Racial Justice Act doesn't apply to Louvier's case. In court documents opposing a new trial, the DA points to the exception carved out by the law, saying Louvier's lyrics were relevant, specifically to prove charges he was in a gang. Jenkins argues Louvier's own words are a, quote, "roadmap to the murder, describing how it was committed and the type of gun used." NPR's Louder Than A Riot podcast has looked closely at other cases where rap and hip-hop lyrics were used by prosecutors. This is cohost Sidney Madden.

SIDNEY MADDEN, BYLINE: It usually involves really small, up-and-coming creators, people who maybe just freestyled on their social media page once.

WRIGHT: The jury in the Louvier case heard significant evidence implicating him. The murder weapon was in his car. His DNA was on the gun and gunshot residue on his hands. Police also found matching bullets in his room. Louvier said a friend borrowed his car. Stayce Evans at Howard says those facts don't change everyone's right to a fair trial.

EVANS: Regardless of the guilt or innocence, I think people still deserve for people to fight for them.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CHANGES")

2PAC: (Rapping) It's time to fight back. That's what Huey said. Two shots in the dark, now Huey's dead. I got love for my brother. But we can never go nowhere unless we share with each other. We got to start making changes, learn to see me as a brother instead of two distant strangers.

WRIGHT: Student Kim Cioffi testified at a recent hearing for Louvier.

KIM CIOFFI: For me, it's about protecting people's constitutional rights.

WRIGHT: Professor Lucius Outlaw, who runs Howard Law's Criminal Justice Clinic, says the plan is to push state and federal lawmakers to pass legislation to decriminalize hip-hop and rap.

LUCIUS OUTLAW: It encapsulates so much that we need to work on in terms of race and understanding race and getting Black people true equal citizenships and equal respect.

WRIGHT: A handful of murder convictions have been overturned in California as a result of its Racial Justice Act, setting precedent. A judge in the Louvier case is expected to decide soon. Kristin Wright, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.