Fourth Circuit upholds drug conviction using rap lyrics

RICHMOND, Va. (CN) — A Fourth Circuit panel rejected arguments Thursday by a man who said that including his rap lyrics about drugs prejudiced the jury in his trial, upholding his intent to distribute conviction.

The judges challenged Atlanta rapper Kenneth Watkin’s arguments that the jury lacked the evidence to convict him in 2022 without hearing his rap lyrics, and that he was improperly sentenced after a lower court used a conversion table based on the weight of the drugs as a sentencing guideline. Watkins was sentenced to over 10 years. 

U.S. Circuit Judge Julius Richardson, a Donald Trump nominee, authored the opinion where the panel dismissed all of Watkin’s arguments and affirmed the decision of the lower court to convict for conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute.

“Watkins was entitled to make these arguments to the jury, as he did. But the jury was not required to believe them. And since there is evidence from which a rational jury could have convicted Watkins, we decline to second guess the jury,” Richardson wrote. 

During the trial, the jury was told that Watkins wrote and performed in music videos where he said “I’m a doper for real,” and “Truckloads and bales, don’t even put ‘em on a scale.”

Watkins was affiliated with suspected drug dealer Steven Cloud and he was recorded speaking with women who moved drugs for Cloud. He also gave one of Cloud’s couriers $4,500 in cash. The courier was arrested with the cash and a Versace box filled with bags of eutylone, but said that Watkins was not the man who gave her the drugs. 

Watkins argued that there was not enough direct evidence linking him to the drugs for the jury to convict without his lyrics.

During arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Ray said the jury didn’t focus on the lyrics to come to a verdict and that the other evidence — including text messages and cash transactions surrounding the deal — was sufficient.  

During the trial, Watkin's lawyers went after the relevance of the lyrics, and in Watkins’ appeal, he argues it was inadmissible because it was improper character evidence. But Richardson challenged the reasons why Watkins now objected to the lyrics.

Watkins forfeited his argument that the lyrics were improper character evidence by not bringing it up during trial, Richardson wrote, saying that Watkins’ legal team also opened the door to the lyrics being introduced by presenting character witnesses for Watkins, such as his wife.

"So while the prosecution might have exploited Watkins’s decision to 'open the door' to character evidence even more than it did, the district court did not err by permitting the limited inquiry into Watkins’s lyrics," Richardson said.

Watkins’ legal team also challenged the drug table used to determine sentencing guidelines.

Eutylone — a Schedule I controlled designer drug similar to ecstasy — is relatively new on the scene and is not specified in federal drug sentencing guidelines, leading the judge in the trial court to calculate sentencing based on analogous drugs in a drug conversion table.

Paul Kish, Watkins’ lawyer, said before the panel in May that if Watkins had been sentenced based on a different drug conversion table, his recommended sentence would have been closer to a year and a half, rather than the 10 years with three years of supervised release he received.

The panel said the lower court properly sentenced Watkins according to the guidelines using the weight of the drugs, and the presumed weight of another box moved by a courier that was not confirmed to have drugs in it, and choose not to issue him a reduced sentence.

Because the court was cognizant of its ability to issue a shorter sentence, but choose not to, Richardson wrote, their decision is not appealable. 

Richardson was joined in the opinion by U.S. District Judge Gina Groh, a Barack Obama appointee who was sitting by designation from the Northern District of West Virginia, and U.S. Circuit Judge Robert King, a Bill Clinton appointee.

Kish did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Follow @SKHaulenbeek

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit