'Killer, killer, take a life." Can song lyrics convict a man of murder?

Can someone’s song lyrics help convict them of murder?

The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals is now trying to answer that question, years after a shooting that killed a man near Herman and Blank streets in Nashville.

The arguments are looping in some pretty big names you’ll definitely recognize, including Johnny Cash and Taylor Swift.

William Britton was arrested for the shooting and killing of Kendall Ostine in 2020. He was convicted of second-degree murder.

While no one disputes that Britton, a rap artist, fired the shots that killed Ostine, Britton’s attorney said the shooting was in self-defense, and that prosecutors shouldn't have used Britton’s own song lyrics against him in court to get that conviction.

Court transcripts of the original trial reveal the prosecutor’s line of questioning about Britton's lyrics with Britton himself on the stand, asking: "In the song you say several times, Killer Killer, take a life. Why would you put that lyric in there?"

Britton's attorneys objected to the question then, but the trial judge allowed it.

Britton is now appealing his conviction in the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, with the help of defense attorney David Raybin.

The appeals court heard arguments in the case this week.

"Imagine Johnny Cash is on trial for murder, and the prosecutor says 'Mr. Cash, isn't it true you wrote a song saying 'I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die?''" Raybin said in his arguments to the three-judge panel.

"Or Bob Marley's on trial for shooting a law enforcement officer, 'Mr. Marley, isn't it true you wrote a song saying 'I shot the sheriff?''"

Raybin argued Britton is only guilty of a much lesser crime, and that his lyrics and his actions are two different things.

"Just because he's singing that does not mean he himself is carrying a gun at any particular time," Raybin said. "Because it's art."

The state says Johnny Cash or Bob Marley was, of course, never on a murder trial. The state's attorneys pushed back when Judge Camille McMullen asked questions about their argument.

"If it is art, it is not fact," McMullen said.

"Art is autobiographical in some instances," replied Lacy Wilber, with the Tennessee Attorney General's office. "As your honors know, Taylor Swift fans parse every sentence and lyric in her song, and the jury was allowed to do the same in this case."

"Songs are not written in a vacuum; songs are written with context and with your life," Wilber said.

The judges will now decide the question: How much weight should someone's song lyrics have and can they help convict someone of a crime?

Rebecca: https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/a2/d9/fb69982545c59e9836fbe80fe431/rebecca-recommends.png

Carrie: https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/2e/72/be0f23854c54a228c9d6138c9847/carrie-recommends-header.png

Ben: https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/df/c4/19fa7c504480938f39a431e3b276/ben-recommends-header.png

Amy: https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/b9/b6/1408516a4a91b97639b178fc1ba9/amy-recommends-header.png

Rhori: https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/5b/25/a224d13d47739165c92b94e643db/rhori-recommends-header.png

Lelan: https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/af/54/833bf879454097a398bd44f723de/lelan-recommends.png

For people of my generation, in our younger days we spent part of our weekends watching music shows like American Bandstand and Soul Train. That was before the age of music videos. Several years before Soul Train was syndicated out of Chicago, another syndicated R&B show was taped in Nashville at NewsChannel 5. Night Train aired in the 60s and included what may have been the first TV appearance for legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Forrest Sanders has another great look back at station history.

-Lelan Statom