“Three weeks before trial, [defendant Lawrence] Montague used a jailhouse telephone to record a rap verse, which was then uploaded to Instagram. [In court], the State of Maryland introduced the telephone recording of the lyrics as evidence of Montague’s guilt, and [he] was convicted and sentenced to a combined fifty years [on murder charges]. Maryland’s highest court … affirmed [the] conviction, finding that the danger of unfair prejudice posed by the admission of the lyrics does not substantially outweigh the lyrics’ probative value.” – Variety
