A notorious gang leader from Los Angeles who has been accused and linked to nine separate murders — three that he was found guilty of carrying out — had his convictions and death sentence overturned last week by the California Supreme Court.

Timothy McGhee, 51, was originally convicted and sentenced in 2009 for three murders and the attempted murders of two police officers. He was once on the U.S. Marshals most-wanted list after disappearing in 2001. Police captured him in 2003 in Arizona.

The three murder convictions that McGhee had overturned were reported between 1997 and 2001, with authorities suspecting that McGhee used violence and his influence as a leader for the Toonerville gang — which has existed in LA since the 1950s, according to the Los Angeles Times — to control the drug trade and intimidate people in neighborhoods surrounding Los Feliz Boulevard between the Los Angeles River and San Fernando Boulevard.

One of the victims, Ronnie Martin, 25, was allegedly shot 28 times by McGhee and several other members of the Toonerville gang. Another victim named Ryan Gonzalez, 17, was gunned down in 2000. The third was killed in 2001.

“People hate what they don’t understand.” The United States of Insanity embodies this mantra, and if you watch the film, you’ll hear these wise words uttered by a man in clown face paint. But maybe that’s part of the point.

The fact that I felt compelled to comment on Joseph Bruce and Joseph Utsler’s face paint speaks volumes about how appearances can prejudice. The two collectively form the alternative hip-hop musical group Insane Clown Posse, also known as ICP. The United States of Insanity details their fight against the FBI to prevent the government from labeling them and their fans, who call themselves Juggalos, as a criminal gang. It is now streaming on Amazon Prime.

The film describes Juggalos—female fans are Juggalettes—as commonly lower working-class individuals who show their affection and affinity for the group by painting their faces in a similar clown style as Bruce and Utsler, who go by the stage names Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope. Juggalos not only embrace the hatred so commonly directed at ICP’s music, they make it the “soundtrack of their lives,” according to the group.

Many meet at the annual “Gathering of the Juggalos,” shirtless and sporting face paint, along with “hatchetman” tattoos. There’s also plenty of band merchandise, including T-shirts and beanies. Their clothing and iconography make them immediately identifiable … when they aren’t hiding it.

If it can happen to a Juggalo …

The decision to associate is an important one for Juggalos. After all, ICP’s music is not critically acclaimed, to say the least. In a somewhat self-deprecating manner, the musicians and their fans seem to champion ICP’s music as being notoriously … bad.

As the film progresses, various Juggalos describe the prejudice they have received for their love of ICP’s music. They recount being fired once their employers discovered their musical allegiance. We hear about people being arrested for nonviolent offenses like driving under the influence of alcohol, only to be placed in the jail’s gang unit. One fan explains being denied custody of his son because a room in his home houses his ICP memorabilia.

This leads to the heart of the film’s discussion: How and why has the FBI labeled ICP and their fans a street gang?

“If this happened to a band that America liked, the country would be up in arms,” the group notes.

We learn that the FBI operates from a national definition of what constitutes a street gang, and they believe ICP fits the bill. According to the film, though, the FBI in reaching that conclusion relied on isolated incidents of criminal activity committed by individuals who identify themselves as Juggalos. I’ve dealt with the Department of Justice and gangs before, but I’ve never had a Juggalo case.

First Amendment concerns

The band fights back, with help from the American Civil Liberties Union. Ultimately, ICP and some Juggalos file a federal lawsuit against the FBI, challenging the agency’s designation of the musical group’s fans as a criminal gang. After six months, the suit is dismissed by a Detroit federal judge, based on the government’s position that the plaintiffs didn’t have standing. They argued that any harm inflicted upon the fans was inflicted by third parties, such as local law enforcement.

The plaintiffs appealed the decision to the Ohio-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The film audience hears portions of the appellate arguments during which government attorneys argue that the gang designation is simply information the FBI provides local law enforcement agencies to use as they see fit.

Regardless, the trial court’s decision is reversed, and the case is remanded back.

Upon remand, the government again moves for a dismissal, and the trial court again grants their motion. The case is appealed once more; however, this time the dismissal is sustained. The appellate court reasoned that since law enforcement isn’t forced to act on the FBI’s gang designation, the FBI isn’t responsible under the Administrative Procedure Act.

Undeterred, the Juggalos march on Washington, D.C., on Sept. 16, 2017, complete with an ICP concert at the Lincoln Memorial. They aren’t happy with the final decision, but they know their fight was on behalf of something bigger than just ICP.

After all, as one of the ACLU attorneys featured in the film commented, “If the government can target a group of people based on their musical tastes, they can target a group of people based on anything at all.”

What is ‘gang evidence,’ and how does it work?

The United States of Insanity ends on a mostly positive note: Even though the Juggalos lost their court battle against the FBI, they raised public concern for their cause while shedding light on some problematic interpretations of what constitutes a “gang.”

As discussed earlier, the FBI uses a national definition with set criteria as to when that label is appropriate, including the following:

  • The group has three or more members, generally aged 12–24.

  • Members share an identity, typically linked to a name, and often other symbols.

  • Members view themselves as a gang, and they are recognized by others as a gang.

  • The group has some permanence and a degree of organization.

  • The group is involved in an elevated level of criminal activity.

Furthermore, in the federal criminal system, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 created punishment enhancements of up to 10 years for members of criminal street gangs who commit certain crimes.

In my home state of Oklahoma, we have a few gang-related statutes. For instance, “[a]ny person who attempts or commits a gang-related offense” either as a condition of membership or while in association with any gang or gang member “shall be guilty of a felony offense.” That felony is punishable by up to five years in addition to any other penalty imposed.

Additionally, prosecutors often try to employ “gang” evidence in their cases. I’ve seen many offer it as res gestae in the matter, arguing the evidence is necessary to give the jury a complete understanding of the crime.

Really, though, it’s usually just a bold-faced attempt to offer propensity evidence to prejudice the jury against the defendant. In that vein, prosecutors will often result to arguing FRCP 404 or the state equivalent—which allows otherwise prohibited propensity evidence—in hopes of proving the proffered gang evidence will show motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, absence of mistake or lack of accident.

Don’t get me wrong: Gangs are real. They can be really dangerous. But as The United States of Insanity shows, an affiliation with a group, even one the government labels as a “gang,” isn’t a person’s only defining characteristic.

It’s foolish to say that every action they take is in conformity with, mandated by or in furtherance of the group.

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Adam R. Banner is the founder and lead attorney of the Oklahoma Legal Group, a criminal defense law firm in Oklahoma City. His practice focuses solely on state and federal criminal defense. He represents the accused against allegations of sex crimes, violent crimes, drug crimes and white-collar crimes.

The study of law isn’t for everyone, yet its practice and procedure seem to permeate pop culture at an increasing rate. This column is about the intersection of law and pop culture in an attempt to separate the real from the ridiculous.

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This column reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily the views of the ABA Journal—or the American Bar Association.

A California man was found guilty this month of first-degree murder for killing a 17-year-old in Oakland while on an “escalating” crime spree that included carjackings, robberies and urinating on the grave of one of the victim’s friends for an Instagram video, according to prosecutors.

Jacobi Gaines, 23, was also convicted of three counts of gun possession, carjacking, robbery, vehicle theft and assault with a deadly weapon in connection to his six-week crime spree back at the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020 — culminating in the murder of Hasan Humphries, according to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, which announced the conviction in a Friday press release.

A Missouri man on lifetime GPS monitoring shot at four kids who knocked at his door while playing “ding-dong ditch” and chased them down in a vehicle before ordering them out of their car at gunpoint and stealing their car keys, police said.

Melvin Rankin, 40, faces charges of unlawful use of a weapon, armed criminal action, and robbery. A probable cause statement spells out the allegations from Sunday in Springfield, Missouri.

A North Carolina gang member who was 16 years old when he fired a barrage of bullets into a car, killing one and paralyzing the victim’s friend, has learned his fate.

Nathan Christopher Jackson, 18, was sentenced to life in prison with parole possible after 40 years in the 2022 shooting that killed Alex Shirley, 21, and paralyzed his friend, Sophie Hagy. Before being sentenced, Jackson was found guilty of first-degree murder, attempted murder and discharging a firearm into a vehicle, inflicting serious injury.

Shirley’s mother, Kristi Lee, described her mixed emotions to the outcome to local NBC affiliate WRAL.

“I felt a lot of relief,” Lee said. “It’s not closure. You don’t get closure when you have to bury your child and see the gruesome things that we saw.”

Eleven suspected members of a Minnesota street gang have been charged in a federal racketeering case alleging murders and attempted murders in bloody gang violence that killed rivals and bystanders alike.

A member of the white supremacist Aryan Brotherhood prison gang in California will spend the rest of his life in prison after admitting to stabbing to death an inmate for lying about being a member of the gang.

Jason “Jake” Corbett, 52, was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison for murder in aid of racketeering, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in a press release.

A second co-defendant in the murder, Pat “Big Pat” Brady, 54, pleaded guilty on Jan. 3, and was sentenced to life in prison last month, prosecutors said.

A gang member learned his fate this week for shooting and killing a 14-year-old boy who he mistook for a rival during a gang war as the boy played basketball at a New York playground.

Sean Brown, 21, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the death of Aamir Griffin. Brown pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the first degree, conspiracy in the second degree, and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, prosecutors said in a news release. The manslaughter and weapon sentences are to be served consecutively, with the 30 years to be followed by five years of post-release supervision, officials said.

A member of the MS-13 gang who fled the U.S. after a quadruple murder of four men lured to a park in New York under the guise of smoking pot pleaded guilty this week to racketeering charges in the scheme that stemmed from gang disrespect on social media.

Edwin Rodriguez, 24, also known as “Manicomio,” entered his plea to the federal charges in the murders of Justin Llivicura, Michael Lopez, Jorge Tigre, and Jefferson Villalobos. Rodriguez faces up to life in prison. His sentencing was set for Sept. 18.