Shaggy defense
legal strategy
A Shaggy defense is an informal phrase used to describe a legal defense strategy in which the defendant categorically denies any accusations with the simple defense of "it wasn't me", despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The phrase is derived from reggae musician Shaggy's 2000 single "It Wasn't Me", and was coined by Slate writer Josh Levin in 2008 to describe the defense tactics used by singer R. Kelly while on trial for child pornography charges.
Origin
"It Wasn't Me" by reggae musician Shaggy was released in September 2000 as the first single from his fifth album Hot Shot, eventually reaching number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States and in other countries. The lyrics of the song depict a man asking his friend what to do after his girlfriend catches him having sex with another woman. His friend's advice is to deny everything, despite clear evidence to the contrary, with the phrase "It wasn't me".
On February 3, 2002, a video surfaced showing popular R&B musician R. Kelly raping and urinating on an underage girl. The story was sent to the Chicago Sun-Times on February 8, 2002. This news surfaced on the day Kelly was to perform at the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics. In interviews with WMAQ television of Chicago and MTV News, Kelly said that he was not the man in the video. In June 2002, Kelly was indicted on 21 counts of child pornography and arrested.
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