The song “My Life” by the 24-year-old rapper T-Sav (real name Tyrell Nuen), published on YouTube, attracted the attention of law enforcement officers, who noticed in the text direct references to the circumstances of the murders of a gangster and a local student. The song’s lyrics helped the police investigation by supplementing witness statements, leading to the conviction of the rapper in the 2017 shooting death of gangster Randy Kang and the 2018 shooting death of local university student Jagvir Singh Mali, as the gangs settled scores with each other, according to CBC News.
At the sentencing, Miriam Groper, Justice of the Supreme Court of the Province of British Columbia, Canada, stated that the song was essentially a confession to the crime, accurately describing its circumstances. “Because I recognize that the lyrics in the music video refer to the shooting of Randy Kang, I conclude that Nuen is posing as the shooter in the music video and that he committed, or at least was a party to, the first degree murder of Randy Kang,” she stated.
At one time, the controversy surrounding the use of artistic expression as evidence in criminal investigations reached the Supreme Court of Canada in a 1996 case in which a man was convicted of second-degree murder. Among the police evidence was also a poem written by the man describing the commission of the murder. The judges ruled that the poem could not be used as evidence by itself, but could be used in conjunction with other evidence.
In her ruling, Groper said that since then evidence against the defendants has used various means of artistic expression, including “poetry, short stories, music and rap videos.”
2024-01-21 14:43:42
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