HARTFORD, Md., June 30 (UPI) -- A Maryland appellate court threw out rapper Justin Ray Hannah's attempted first-degree murder conviction and ordered a new trial.
The appeals court said the trial judge should only have permitted the jury to hear the lyrics of gun violence related song lyrics if the stanzas contained an admission of guilt, The Baltimore Sun reported Thursday.
The Hartford County prosecutor had convinced the trial jury that Hannah committed the crime and then phoned his ex-girlfriend and said, "Your boy's done, this is finished, that's why we popped shots."
But Hannah repeatedly testified that he knew nothing about guns.
"The prosecutor's use of petitioner's writings was unfairly prejudicial. It had no tendency to prove any issue other than the issue of whether petitioner was a violent thug with a propensity to commit the crimes for which he was on trial," the appeals court said.
The court also said the Hannah was "unnecessarily prodded into conceding that he had written each of the violent lyrics."
