Defendant’s Facebook Post of Rap Lyric Admissible at Trial

A rap lyric quoted on Facebook by a firearm possession defendant was admissible at his trial, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held March 7.

A jury could infer Larry Recio meant to adopt the lyric as his own statement when he posted it with a slight modification and gave no indication it was written by someone else, the court said in an opinion by Judge Diana Gribbon Motz. Reico did not use quotations marks or attribute the lyric to the artist. Because of these facts, the post was not inadmissible hearsay, it held.

Sometimes “people quote ...