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Lawmakers Feel Murder Ballads Fall Flat As Evidence In Criminal Trials
Johnny Cash never shot a man in Reno just to watch him die, but those lyrics could have come to haunt him had he spoken from experience.
April 20, 2023
10:48
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Lawmakers feel ‘murder ballads’ fall flat as evidence in criminal trials
By: Greg LaRose - April 20, 2023 10:48 am
Find out what's happening in Across Louisianafor free with the latest updates from Patch.
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Johnny Cash never shot a man in Reno just to watch him die, but those lyrics could have come back to haunt him had he spoken from experience. In an effort to protect such creative artistic expression, a panel of Louisiana lawmakers voted Thursday to make such evidence inadmissible in court with a key exception.
Speaker Pro Temp Tanner Magee, R-Houma, moved a bill through the House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice that blocks a prosecutor from submitting a performer’s work that references crime as evidence to support a criminal charge. The exception involves when someone describes a specific criminal act that he or she is accused of committing.
Magee provided a list of 25 Louisiana court cases where song lyrics were admitted as evidence in criminal trials, including cases against Corey “C-Murder” Miller, Donald “Big” Sylvester and Curtis “Kidd Kidd” Stewart. More than half of the convictions were appealed based at least partially on the admittance of questionable evidence.
Known as a musicophile, Magee provided a brief history of “murder ballads” to the committee. He said the music genre can be traced back to 1727 and cited as an example “Pretty Polly,” an 18th century song that tells the story of a woman lured from the woods, killed and buried in a shallow grave. The folk-country song continues to be performed today.
Magee also referenced the catalog of Johnny Cash, who created so many murder ballads that he churned out a CD exclusively composed of them late in his career. While “Folsom Prison Blues” is the best known, the speaker pro tem highlighted “Cocaine Blues,” in which Cash sings that he “took a shot of cocaine” and shot a woman “because she made me slow.”
“Now, clearly, Johnny Cash did not murder anybody,” Magee said. “Well, he did murder somebody one time, and that was on the TV show ‘Columbo.’ But in real life, he never murdered anybody.”
Magee’s measure, House Bill 475, was approved in a 7-3 vote, with Republican Reps. Tony Bacala of Prairieville, Valarie Hodges of Denham Springs and Alan Seabaugh of Shreveport opposed.
Bacala argued that judges already have the discretion to decide whether lyrics are admissible in criminal cases.
The Louisiana Association of District Attorneys supports Magee’s bill.
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