Rapper YNW Melly’s lyrics could be used against him in double murder retrial

Jamell Demons, known to millions of rap fans as YNW Melly, will go on trial early next year in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for a double murder he allegedly committed five years ago.

But after a mistrial on the same charges in July, Florida prosecutors are now controversially planning to introduce his lyrics into evidence in a case that could carry the death penalty if he is convicted.

Demons, 24, is accused of killing two fellow rappers, Christopher “Juvy” Thomas Jr and Anthony “Sakchaser” Williams, who were shot inside a Jeep driven by their friend, Cortland “YNW Bortlen” Henry, and conspiring to make it look like a drive-by killing.

The murders of Thomas and Williams occurred after an overnight recording session in Fort Lauderdale in October 2018, and came soon after Demons, allegedly a member of the G-Shine Bloods, found commercial success with a double-platinum trap-rap hit, Murder on My Mind.

Last week, the Broward county prosecutor Alixandra Buckelew said she planned to include Demons’ Murder on My Mind among 55 songs, four album covers and 18 audio files into evidence at his retrial – something the prosecutor at his first trial declined to do.

In that trial, prosecutor Kristine Bradley argued that the case against Demons was “not just in lyrics. We’re not going to get into that because that’s artistic expression. That’s not why we’re here today.”

According to the Miami Herald, Demons’ defense attorney Raven Liberty has asked the Broward circuit court Judge John Murphy to block prosecutors from introducing the songs, as well as music videos and lyrics, into Demons’ retrial.

“To receive something this late in the game is just part and parcel of what they’ve been doing the entire time,” Liberty told the outlet, saying that the state attorney’s office had given Demons’ defense team an assurance that lyrics would not be used against him three years ago.

Because Demons faces the death penalty if convicted, the prosecutors’ burden is higher than the standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt” under Florida law, rising to the Florida legal standard known as “proof evident, presumption great”.

But if Demons’ lyrics are admitted into evidence it will probably escalate the legal and cultural debate over their use in criminal settings.

Last month, free speech groups and stars like Jay-Z and Coldplay objected when a judge in Atlanta ruled lyrics could be introduced to the trial of rapper Young Thug.

Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, is standing trial accused of racketeering and running what prosecutors call “a criminal street gang” called YSL (Young Slime Life, also Young Stoner Life).

Its members have been charged with murder, carjackings and other alleged crimes. Williams’s defense attorneys have said YSL is a record label and music collective and Williams has “committed no violation of law whatsoever”.

Lyrics have been previously used in the trials against US rappers such as Tekashi 6ix9ine and Tay-K in recent years, and the practice has been used in 240 cases in the UK, according to the Guardian, in the last three years.

In September 2022, California outlawed the use of lyrics as evidence in state trials. Harvey Mason Jr, chief executive of the Recording Academy, which runs the Grammy awards, at the time called that “an important victory … Silencing any genre or form of artistic expression is a violation against all music people.”

The Rico case against Young Thug was delayed again last week – jury selection has taken a year – after Shannon Stillwell, one of his five Young Slime Life co-defendants, was injured during an inmate brawl in Atlanta.

In the Demons case, prosecutors have said they will file a response to the defense’s request to have his artistic output blocked from evidence. A hearing is set for 9am Monday.