Hot Bench with Mina Ghani

Welcome to Hot Bench, and thank you for your time! Could you start by sharing your name, year, and hometown? 

Sure! My name is Mina Ghani, I’m a 1L, and I’m from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. 

Credit: Mina Ghani

I’ve heard that you were profiled by the Muslim Law Students Association. Is this true? 

Maybe last month, I got an email from somebody from the Muslim Law Students Association sending me an invite to join their group. It basically said that they looked at the class directory and chose the names that seemed the most Arabic. I thought that was hilarious. Even though I’m not Muslim, I decided to join anyway. 

Could you describe the job you were working before starting law school? 

In between my summers of college, and also a little bit while I was working in school, I worked for this organization called Rap on Trial. We worked with rappers who had their lyrics used as evidence in criminal proceedings: for example, Young Thug. Most recently, I was assisting with Lil Durk’s case. 

How did you know you wanted to do that kind of work? 

I’m really interested in music. I come from more of a musical theater and metal background, but I've always been fascinated by music in general. One time, my future boss came into my Race and Law seminar to speak. The next year, I approached him about it, and he took me on. 

Did you attend any notable trials? 

I saw the Diddy trial when that was going on. I went down to the Southern District of New York and saw him in all his glory. 

Glory? 

Infamous glory, I’d like to say. 

What are the problems with putting rap on trial?  

When a prosecutor has to rely heavily on art as evidence, they don’t have much of a case to begin with. There are some exceptions; if you’ve ever seen the Key and Peele skit where they’re obviously confessing in detail to a specific crime, that is probably admissible. There are various approaches, state by state; New Jersey (see Skinner) uses the strict nexus test, and I think that’s a pretty good standard. But I just think we generally shouldn’t admit lyrics about violence or lawlessness if they're not actually related to the specific crime that the defendant is being charged with. It chills speech. And it makes rappers, many of whom are already at risk of mass incarceration as young black men, more likely to be found guilty of things they didn’t do. 

How would you say your chocolate allergy has shaped you into the person you are today? 

I have two really severe allergies. One is to chocolate, and the other is to valproic acid, a medicine used to treat epilepsy. I had epilepsy as a kid, and valproic acid just made me more sick. Similarly with chocolate: I would eat chocolate when I was sad, and then I would get more sick. But what is a person to turn to if they don't have chocolate? I guess I've gotten good at using different coping mechanisms. It is really sad, though, because I live 45 minutes away from Hershey. 

Could you even breathe safely in Hershey? 

Sure, and I like the smell of chocolate. What I'm specifically allergic to is cocoa powder. 

Can you eat white chocolate?  

Because there's no cocoa powder in it, I can and do eat white chocolate. I think white chocolate is great. 

Time for a lightning round. Pardon, marry, prosecute: Tay-K, Suge Knight, Fetty Wap. 

Oh gosh. Uh, can I skip?  

I mean... 

I don’t want to prosecute anyone. 

Okay, fine. 

Thank you. 

Mock trial or real trial? 

It’s got to be mock trial. I really, really love mock trial, since it combines all of the things I love about theater and law into one very clean and polished operation. It’s also nice to be a part of a team where everybody trusts each other and is so familiar with the materials that we can just explore our dynamic and make fun of the judge or other teams. You can’t do that in a real trial. A lot of people that I know from mock trial, I’m sure I’ve spent more time with them than certain associates do with each other. 

Video game music or real music? 

Okay, I don’t like that. Video game music is real music, thank you very much. I decline to answer the question. 

Real music or AI music? 

Oh, real music. Now I’m even more offended by the previous question. AI music is not real music, though video game music is. The point of music is that you’re putting a part of your soul and your persona into it. AI doesn't have that kind of capability because it’s a machine; it doesn’t have a soul or feelings to convey to a wider audience. 

At least you have some principles. 

I would just like to say I'm not defending specific people. I don’t think Diddy is a good person. I just think art shouldn’t be criminalized. I have more experience with these big trials because those are the ones that get widely publicized, but the small rappers are the ones we should be really worried about. 

Do you have any parting thoughts to share with the UVA Law community? 

Join the Libel Show! I’m the vocal director, and I love to listen to people sing.