Opinion ID: 1801744
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 15

Heading: Rap Lyrics

Text: The district court admitted exhibit 179, rap lyrics written by Hughes, into evidence. Those lyrics provided in pertinent part: [Gates Of Hell.] My life has been hell in and out of jail so all I got is a fuck it mentality and kill tha devil when he comes for me Im gona have to hold court in the street G, Ill be dam if I go back to a cell.... However, the court refused to admit exhibits 180, 181, 182, and 183, rap lyrics written by Hughes, into evidence. Respectively, those lyrics provided in pertinent part: It's On. Just out of da pen, pulled over by a cop who lets him go, got back south and told a friend it's on. ... ... F on my Back. [O]uta the pen, he knows he has an F [felony] on his back. . . . Fresh out of da Pen. He wants them years back, won't go back to that again, prison is like being buried alive. . . . City of Cross Fire. He lays in wait and, as a sniper, then puts a bullet in police chief's head because he lied on a gang member. Brief for appellant at 27. The district court held that exhibits 180, 181, 182 and 183 are not relevant to the case... and I'm specifically so ruling that the probative value is outweighed ... by the prejudicial value. Assuming arguendo that exhibits 180, 181, 182, and 183 are relevant, nonetheless, Neb. Evid. R. 403, Neb.Rev. Stat. § 27-403 (Reissue 1995), states: Although relevant, evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury, or by considerations of undue delay, waste of time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence.  (Emphasis supplied.) Cumulative evidence means evidence tending to prove the same point of which other evidence has been offered. State v. McBride, 250 Neb. 636, 550 N.W.2d 659 (1996); State v. Toney, 243 Neb. 237, 498 N.W.2d 544 (1993). Exhibit 179 incorporates the same substantive themes that appear in exhibits 180 through 183, i.e., won't go back to jail and willing to shoot a police officer. Thus, exhibits 180 through 183 are cumulative evidence because they tend to prove the same point for which exhibit 179 was offered. Where the record adequately demonstrates that the decision of a trial court is correct, although such correctness is based on a ground or reason different from that assigned by the trial court, an appellate court will affirm. State v. Tlamka, 244 Neb. 670, 508 N.W.2d 846 (1993). See State v. Anderson, 245 Neb. 237, 512 N.W.2d 367 (1994). Therefore, the district court did not err in refusing to admit the cumulative rap lyrics proffered by Allen.