Rap Expert to Testify at Trial of Student Accused of Writing 'Murderous Rampage' Note
A rap expert is among the witnesses expected to testify at the trial of a former college student accused of making a terrorist threat after police found a threatening note in his abandoned car.
The defense claims the former Southern Illinois University student, Olutosin Oduwole, is an aspiring rapper, report the Chicago Tribune and the Belleville News-Democrat. He was charged as a result of this note: “Send $2 to PayPal account. If this account doesn’t reach $50,000 in the next 7 days then a murderous rampage similar to the VT shooting will occur at another highly populated university, this is not a joke!”
Police found the note when they impounded Oduwole’s car in 2007, the same year a Virginia Tech student killed 32 people. Lawyers claim the note contained rap lyrics and is similar to Johnny Cash’s song about shooting a man just to watch him die, or Bob Marley’s song about shooting the sheriff, but not the deputy, the Tribune says.
The rap expert on the witness list is Charis Kurbrin, a professor at the University of California. She has written a paper called “Gangstas, Thugs, and Hustlas: Identity and the Code of the Street in Rap Music.”
Jurors chosen Tuesday for Oduwole’s trial in Edwardsville, Ill., include a custodian who plays in a rock band and an insurance account executive who isn’t familiar with rap, according to the News-Democrat.
