Are rap lyrics criminal evidence in Kansas or just artistic expression?

In Brief

• Kansas Supreme Court hears State of Kansas v. Deon Eugene Austin.
• Austin sentenced to life with parole eligibility after 53 years.
• Defense argues rap lyrics are irrelevant and prejudicial evidence.
• Prosecution claims lyrics relate directly to homicide.

The Kansas Supreme Court will determine whether rap lyrics written by a teenager can be used as evidence in a homicide case.

On May 18, the court heard oral arguments on State of Kansas v. Deon Eugene Austin, a criminal appeal case out of Johnson County, Kansas, which is near Kansas City along the border of Missouri.

Austin’s legal team is attempting to appeal his first-degree murder and aggravated battery conviction. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole until he has served at least 53 years.

There are five questions the court is reviewing in this case. They are listed as follows:

• Were Austin’s due process rights violated during his trial by the introduction of “irrelevant and unfairly prejudicial” rap lyrics that he created and recited on a jail phone call?
• Was the prosecution wrong for arguing, that Austin confessed to the crime through his rap lyrics?
• Was the prosecutor wrong for making “additional impermissible” arguments to the jury?
• Was there sufficient evidence to convict Austin?
• Did the overall effect of the prosecution’s errors deny Austin a fair trial? If so, does the count think it warrants a reversal?

Austin denied juvenile court and convicted as adult

On April 10, 2022, two teenagers were found shot at the Silverwood Apartments in Mission, Kansas — a male 16-year-old who was pronounced dead at the scene and a 13-year-old girl who was hospitalized. In October 2022, Austin was arrested in connection to the April incident.

Austin was 17 years old at the time, but the court waived the jurisdiction out of juvenile court on May 1, 2023, and he was tried as an adult.

In September 2024, a jury found Austin guilty, and he was sentenced to life in prison without parole until he has served at least 50 years, followed by another 43 months.

Austin’s legal team says his rap lyrics aren’t evidence

Austin’s attorney Debra Wilson said the evidence brought against Austin was too weak to convict.

“The evidence that put this teenager in prison for at least 53 years was weak,” Wilson said. “It was so weak that the jurors who convicted him said the conviction rested on rap lyrics.”

She said the lyrics were too vague and made no reference to the crime he was being held for at the time they were written.

Wilson said the lyrics “knowing crips with blood on their kicks” was not a reference to the victim losing a shoe at the crime scene. She said this lyric and other lyrics in the raps are common phrases in the genre. She claims Austin’s lyrics are about knowing and growing up around violence but not a specific crime.

Justice Caleb Stegall asked why the weight of the evidence couldn’t just be argued in court before the jury.

Wilson said in similar cases elsewhere, the lyrics become such a “distraction” to the case that it almost becomes prejudicial.

Stegall asked if it was because the lyrics are rap and whether the same issue would arise if it were a country song.

Wilson said they could “spend all day” talking about violence in American music, but judges are meant to be gatekeepers to what evidence is usable and these lyrics shouldn’t have been entered into evidence.

Why prosecution says the rap lyrics are evidence

Kendall Kaut, the attorney arguing on behalf of the state, said rap is a popular genre and woven into everyday life. He said while a couple of the jurors were unfamiliar with rap, it wouldn’t have caused any prejudicial or untoward rulings.

Kaut also stated that rap often can be literal, metaphorical, “braggadocious” and therefore is up for artistic interpretation.

“Some of the lyrics may not be the way the prosecution wants to interpret them and some may be,” Kaut said. “But as it relates to what Justice Stegall brought up, that’s why these lyrics were fair for the jury to consider when Mr. Austin decides it’s a good idea to rap about a very brutal homicide in lyrics he created on two separate phone calls.”

Kaut also argued that “blood on their kicks” might not be the strongest line to connect to the crime, but such lines  “Check the mag after the clip, should be no slugs in the clip” are clearly related to the case.

While the gun wasn’t recovered, based off a ballistics report, it was likely the shooter unloaded a full clip.