Two New York state senators are introducing legislation this week to limit the admissibility of rap lyrics as evidence in criminal trials. Rolling Stone reports that the proposed “Rap Music On Trial” bill from Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan) and Jamaal Bailey (D-The Bronx) will set a new high bar compelling prosecutors to show “clear and convincing evidence” that a defendant’s rap song, video, or other “creative expression” is “literal, rather than figurative or fictional.”

Hoylman says that no one thinks Johnny Cash actually “shot a man in Reno just to watch him die” or that David Byrne is a real “psycho killer,” but rappers have repeatedly had their lyrics used against them in criminal cases, a practice that he thinks is “chilling to artistic expression” and “reveals a bias in some instances that denigrates certain forms of expression, like rap music … There’s a social justice component to this that meets the moment.”

“There’s a glaring double standard that often happens when it comes to artists of color,” Bailey adds. “There’s a lyric by Jay-Z that always speaks to me: ‘Scarface the movie did more than Scarface the rapper to me.’ It underlines the point that we don’t see this happening with movies. We don’t see this happening with other forms of creative expression. But we see it happening with hip-hop.”

The strange case of Drakeo The Ruler is one of the most recent high-profile instances of a rapper’s lyrics being used against him in court. Drakeo was charged in the 2016 murder of a man outside a party in Carson, California. He was acquitted, but the DA’s office re-filed charges over the same incident and Drakeo remained in jail, eventually accepting a plea deal on lesser charges and getting off with time served — after three years in custody.

Although prosecutors agreed from the start that Drakeo didn’t pull trigger, they used his lyrics to convince jurors that he had attended the party to target another rapper. I’m ridin’ around town with a tommy gun and a Jag/ And you can disregard the yelling, RJ tied up in the back,” Drakeo rapped on his 2016 song “Flex Freestyle.”

“I didn’t even think they could do that,” Drakeo tells Rolling Stone. “It didn’t make no sense. It was just crazy.” Drakeo’s lawyer, John Hamasaki, says that the prosecution was “essentially putting him on trial for a possible life sentence based on the theory his rap lyrics had demonstrated his intent to murder a guy. But somebody else completely unrelated was murdered. But maybe they were there at the same time. It was a really, really tenuous theory.”

“I have never seen rap lyrics used in such a convoluted and distorted way to try to [imply] guilt against somebody who they had little to no evidence committed the crime,” Hamasaki adds. “The state was trying to convict an innocent man in such an outrageous way, based on really speculative evidence. The whole time I was like, ‘Why is this case even on trial?’ But they were gung-ho on pursuing it.”

Hoylman says he and Bailey hope to introduce the new legislation later this week. “I’d love to see it become law next session,” he says. “I’m hopeful we can get this moving and on the governor’s desk before June.”