| In SDNY Another Rap Song
Showdown In Trial For Murder of Shaquille
Malcolm in The Bronx
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
Honduras
- The
Source - The
Root - etc
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Dec 4 –
On the second day of 2014 in
The Bronx, New York Shaquille
Malcolm was repeatedly shot
and killed in a building in
the Allerton section.
In arraignments
that followed, Inner City
Press reported
that the death penalty was on
the table, including as to a
co-defendant who has since
pled guilty to a superseding
indictment, Gyancarlos
Espinal.
On December 4 the
two remaining co-defendants
Arius Hopkins and Theryn Jones
a/k/a Old Man Ty were on trial
before U.S. District Court for
the Southern District of New
York Judge Lewis A. Kaplan.
Testifying against them was
now cooperating co-defendant
Alexander Melendez. He
described using a .22 to shoot
and kill Shaquille Malcolm,
with orders and firepower
given by the two mean with six
lawyers sitting at the defense
table.
The
upcoming issue is the use of a
rap or hip-hop song as
evidence. Arius Hopkins'
lawyer Glenn A. Garber had
asked that prospective jurors
be asked if they were familiar
with "the genre of music
called gansta
rap."
On December 4,
Assistant US Attorney Danielle
R. Sassoon argued that
questions about the song - a
copy of which does not appear
to have been uploaded by the
US Attorney's Office unlike
with GUMMO and Billy in the #6ix9ine
trial also known as US
v. Jones - should be
limited.
Such songs
and lyrics are also being used
by the US Attorney's Office in
another SDNY case Inner City
Press has covered,
US v. Darrell Lawrence, et
al., 19-cr-761 (Oetken).
It is an emerging and
accelerating First (and Fifth)
Amendment issue, leading Inner
City Press to raise folk-type
song SDNY questions.
Judge Kaplan reserved judgment
on what he will allow on
cross-examination. This case
is US v. Jones, et al.,17-cr-791
(Kaplan).
***
Your
support means a lot. As little as $5 a month
helps keep us going and grants you access to
exclusive bonus material on our Patreon
page. Click
here to become a patron.
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
SDNY Press Room 480, front cubicle
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: Box 20047, Dag
Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2019 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com for
|
,
