The wife of a man fatally shot almost a year ago in Illinois is accusing the alleged perpetrators of bragging about the murder on a song they’ve released. According to CBS 2, authorities are still investigating the fatal shooting, and arrests in connection to it are yet to be made.
In an interview with the news outlet, the victim’s wife, Asiah Carter, said she was in the dark over who killed her husband Aaron until videos of the song in question were shared online. “They literally sang about it, and they continue to mock him,” Carter, who is a retired army veteran, said. “It’s not fair to kill people and mock their families. It’s not trendy.”
Aaron lost his life in August last year when a South Shore home he was in was hit with bullets. And though authorities are yet to bring in suspects linked to the murder, Carter said the alleged suspects implicated themselves in the videos.
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“They gave so many clear details about his murder,” Carter said. “It was so disturbing because nobody in the entire state of Illinois had claimed Aaron’s death until these guys did.”
However, Irv Miller, a legal analyst with CBS 2, said that though the videos in question could assist law enforcement with investigations, state law stipulates investigators will still need more evidence to be able to charge or prosecute the suspects.
“That could get the attention of the authorities to say hey there might be something here and we can take a look at this,” Miller said. “If I was this particular rapper I would be concerned that there’s going to be a knock at my door saying hey let’s talk about that video.”
The topic of prosecutors using rap lyrics as evidence is a hotly debated one as critics argue it’s a violation of First Amendment rights. In Maryland, a man was convicted for murder after recorded rap lyrics linked to him were used as evidence. The man appealed the conviction but it was upheld by the state’s court of appeals, CBS 2 reported.
“It’s very controversial,” Sanford Ungar, the director of the free speech project at Georgetown University, told the news outlet. “The ultimate free speech question here is whether this is on a slippery slope. If you allow a conviction or two or three on the basis of something that someone said.”
Meanwhile, Carter is hopeful investigators will look into the videos in question and use them as the basis to arrest and also bring charges against her husband’s alleged killers. “Hopefully, hopefully, these songs and videos can be used against them and prosecute them for Aaron’s murder,” she said. “It would mean so much. It would be justice, a resolution.”
