JUSTICE intervened in the Court of Appeal case R v Ademola Adedeji in order to raise issues about racial stereotyping, the adultification of black and ethnic minority defendants, and the misinterpretation of drill music as evidence of criminal activity.

Read our full submissions in this case here: 2024.12.13 - JUSTICE - Third Party Intervention - Ademola Adedeji

In reaction to the judgment in this case, which overturned Adedeji’s GBH conviction, Emma Snell, Legal Policy Manager at JUSTICE, said:

"Every child and young person deserves to have their creativity nourished and to live without fear of guilt by association. The Court rightly highlighted the vital need to ensure people with shared music interests are not unfairly labelled as gangs, and that evidence of gang membership must avoid racial stereotyping. 

However, more needs to be done. Rap music is one of the most popular genres of music in the UK – it’s time to end its criminalisation by raising the threshold for its use as evidence."