United States v. Houston

I respectfully dissent. Of the issues presented, four errors,1 when considered cumulatively, rendered the Defendant’s trial fundamentally unfair. These errors, in essence, are: (1) the district court’s judicial notice of “gangsta rap” and its failure to conduct a complete voir dire of all prospective jurors regarding any opinions or prejudices against “gangsta rap”; (2) the government counsel’s reference to the title of the Defendant’s song “Murderers and Robbers” during the cross-examination of a defense witness in violation of his pretrial agreement on this subject; (3) the district court’s…