A member of the Brothers Keepers gang was sentenced to life in prison for murder and attempted murder, and the lyrics to his rap songs were played to him during the sentencing.
Delivering the verdict this week, the judge said “artistic expression” was one of the reasons that helped her reach her verdict.
Tyrel Nguyen was convicted of two murders and two attempted murders, reported the Vancouver Sun.
According to the newspaper, the gang member confessed to the murder of one of his victims in a clip in which he said he shot the man multiple times, including once in the head.
The lyrics used in the trial allegedly refer to the murder of Randy Kang, who was killed in Surrey, British Columbia in 2017.
According to British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Miriam Gropper, “artistic expression” was first used in Canada in 1996, when a residential home resident was convicted of second-degree murder after police found a poem in his bedroom.
Although the procedure has since been used dozens of times in Canada, critics say it targets rap lyrics more and therefore could be “unfair to black Canadians and other minorities,” according to a Canadian legal expert quoted in the article.
According to research by David Tanovich, a professor at Windsor University, 36 examples cited in the lawsuits involved rap lyrics, compared to just one case of metal punk, which was not included.