San Deigo-based rapper Tiny Doo has already spent eight months in prison, and faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted under a little-known California statute that makes it illegal to benefit from gang activities.
The statute in question is California Penal Code 182.5. The code makes it a felony for anyone to participate in a criminal street gang, have knowledge that a street gang has engaged in criminal activity, or benefit from that activity.
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CNN Legal Analyst Mark Geragos says the district attorney may be trying to send a message “that you shouldn’t glorify or glamorize gang activity.”
“The problem is you’re going to run straight head-on into the 1st Amendment,” he said. “If they don’t have anything other than the album, this case I don’t think would ever stand up.”
