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Do Rap Lyrics Amount To A Murder Confession? Widowed Army Veteran Believes They Do

CHICAGO (WBBM-TV) -- A retired Army veteran had her life ripped apart when her husband was murdered. It's almost a year later, and no one's been charged. Now,  she says there's evidence the killers made a song about it.

Asiah Carter hasn't heard a word about who possibly killed her husband, Aaron, until videos started popping online. She claims they are confessions.

"They literally sang about it, and they continue to mock him," Carter told CBS 2's Charlie DeMar. "Its not fair to kill people and mock their families. It's not trendy."

Aaron was shot and killed last August. He was inside a home in the South Shore neighborhood when bullets were fired into the back of the house. Nobody has been arrested, but since his murder, several rap videos have popped up online.

"They gave so many clear details about his murder,"  said Asiah, adding the men in the videos take credit for killing her husband and mention him directly. "It was so disturbing because nobody in the entire state of Illinois had claimed Aaron's death until these guys did."

WBBM-TV legal analyst Irv Miller says the videos could start an investigation but more evidence would be needed in Illinois to bring charges or convict.

"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."

In Maryland, rap lyrics recited into a recorded jailhouse call detailing a crime were used to convict a man of murder. The state's highest court recently upheld the decision. "It's very controversial," said Sanford Ungar, the director of the Free Speech Project at Georgetown University. "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."

Back in Chicago and the search for Aaron's killer, Asiah Carter believes the rap music will eventually lead to justice for her late husband. "Hopefully, hopefully these songs and videos can be used against them and prosecute them for Aarons murder," she said. "It would mean so much. It would be justice, a resolution."

Critics of the Maryland decision say allowing lyrics to be used is discriminatory and only silences art. The Chicago Police Department says Aaron's case is still being investigated.

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