December 23, 1985, The young men Raymond Belknap, 18 years old, and James Vance, 20, starred in one of the bloodiest news stories of that time. Both friends spent six hours drinking, smoking marijuana, and listening to the album "Stained Class" by Judas Priest. After that, the young men took a shotgun and decided to commit suicide. Belknap died instantly, while Vance survived, although losing a large part of his face before passing away in 1988. The families' defense soon found a culprit: Judas Priest and their subliminal messages that incited violence.
The victims' families sued CBS Records for 6.2 million dollars in damages. Five years later, in August 1990, the trial's verdict sparked worldwide anticipation as it would set a legal precedent, affecting other bands whose lyrics were criticized for their aggressiveness. "It's a very, very interesting topic, belonging to psychology." But I had no idea. I was just a damn heavy metal band singer. "We were baffled by some of the things coming out of that courtroom," Halford added.
In their favor, the band had the outcome of other trials where musicians were protected thanks to the application of the First Amendment of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression in the United States. Despite that, years earlier, Judge Jerry Whitched had signed a ruling in 1988 explaining that the First Amendment did not protect them from their messages.
Halford remembers that entire month when they had to move to the United States. "We were in court from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, every day for a month." We stayed outside of Reno to get away from the press. (...) There we were asking ourselves, why are we here? "We are British metal musicians and we are going to have to defend our music and our fans against the absurd, ridiculous accusations that we put that kind of messages in our music to kill them," recounted the artist. Almost 30 days later, on August 24, 1990, Judas Priest was acquitted of the charges.
In a 100-page ruling with over 40 witnesses consulted, Judge Whitched ruled that the families could not prove the hidden subliminal messages. Today, the musician reveals: "I really wanted to go to the mothers and give them a hug, tell them 'I'm sorry for the loss of your children.'" "Let's have a coffee and talk about this," but he avoided doing so because there was a whole network of people behind them, "a kind of infiltration by extreme Christian groups urging them to pursue the case."
Regarding the trial itself, Halford assured that he and his companions felt relieved, although disappointed. "(The judge) did not outright say 'what the prosecution was suggesting did not happen,' but basically said: "Look, this is still a gray area, this band did not put these words in the song and those words did not create this tragedy." (...) The whole issue of subliminal messages was left in limbo. "It would be horrible to think that this could happen again, but we just have to wait," he concluded.