The Brief

When public officials tasked with holding criminals accountable cheat to win a conviction, it can lead to reduced sentences — even freedom — for other convicted criminals, sometimes dozens of them. It can also give people who were wrongfully convicted a shot at redemption.

A new tally released earlier this month lists criminal cases against 57 Orange County defendants that were tainted as a result of official misconduct uncovered in the trial against the county's deadliest mass shooter, Scott Dekraai, who gunned down eight people at a Seal Beach salon in 2011.

In these cases, which include 35 homicide cases, charges against a defendant were dropped or lessened, or the defendant was granted a new trial. For five defendants, all charges were dismissed.

"Either an innocent person was charged or a guilty person went free, neither of which we like as a society," said Maurice Possley, senior researcher at the National Registry of Exonerations.

The tally was done by Scott Sanders, the O.C. assistant public defender who, nearly a decade ago, was largely responsible for exposing the county’s notorious "snitch scandal." The number of cases tainted by the scandal is much higher than previous, publicly released estimates. And Sanders said there could be many more.

"I'm not saying it's complete by any nature," Sanders said of the list. "It's not."

On top of the cases already impacted by the snitch scandal's long reach, Sanders outlined dozens more cases in a recent court filing that could be revisited because of new evidence of potential misconduct. That misconduct, Sanders alleges, was carried out by O.C. law enforcement officers and a former top prosecutor who is now a superior court judge.

"Whether those cases get justice is very much in question at this moment," Sanders told LAist.

The O.C. District Attorney's Office has yet to file a formal response to Sanders' allegations, which the public defender says justify dropping murder charges against one of his clients. An initial court hearing on the matter is scheduled for Friday in San Diego.

Here's how misconduct uncovered in one case can affect so many other, seemingly unrelated cases.

Assistant public defender Scott Sanders (right) surfaced evidence of a secret, unconstitutional jailhouse informant program while defending Scott Dekraai (left), accused of killing eight people in a Seal Beach beauty salon.

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O.C.'s snitch scandal, a recap

The official misconduct uncovered in the Dekraai murder case, which has been confirmed by courts, internal investigations and the Department of Justice, was twofold: misusing jailhouse informants, commonly known as snitches, and hiding information about it from defendants.

The misconduct happened under the previous O.C. district attorney, Tony Rackauckas, who lost his re-election bid to current district attorney Todd Spitzer in 2018. Spitzer has implemented reforms and pledged not to tolerate cheating among prosecutors and law enforcement.

Rackauckas, who is now in private practice, did not immediately return a voicemail left on his cell phone asking for comment.

Harvard law professor Alexandra Natapoff said jailhouse informants are a common feature of the U.S. criminal justice system. But the way the system works, and its abuses, are often kept quiet.

"Every once in a while there's an enormous debacle … that shines a light not just on an individual jailhouse snitch, but the marketplace within that particular jail," she said.

That's what happened in the Dekraai case.

"Orange County, I think, can fairly be said to now be the poster child for the institution-wide jailhouse snitch scandal model," Natapoff said.

It's not illegal for authorities to use confidential informants — in or out of custody — to collect information. But once someone has been charged with a crime, the Sixth Amendment and subsequent court decisions guarantee them the right to have an attorney present during questioning by a law enforcement representative, including an informant secretly working for law enforcement. This is sometimes called the "Massiah" rule after a Supreme Court case.

Prosecutors must also turn over evidence from, and about, jailhouse informants used in a defendant's criminal case because it could help the defendant question the informant's credibility. Failing to do so violates the 14th Amendment and related court decisions, which require prosecutors to share with defendants any evidence they have that could help them prove their innocence. This is sometimes known as the "Brady" rule after another Supreme Court case.

The origins of the snitch scandal

In 2014, Sanders was defending Dekraai and another man, Daniel Wozniak, who was later convicted of double murder, when he began to uncover evidence of a secret informant program in O.C. jails.

The mass murder case against Dekraai should've been a slam dunk — he confessed to the crime soon after the shooting. But deputies decided to put him in a jail cell with a confidential informant, motivated by the possibility that Dekraai might try to plead insanity, according to a 2020 audit of the misconduct commissioned by Spitzer.

Then, prosecutors hid evidence from Dekraai's defense team about the informant and his work on behalf of law enforcement.

Dekraai pleaded guilty in 2014, but his sentencing was delayed for three years while the court investigated police and prosecutor misconduct in the case. Eventually, courts removed the entire Orange County District Attorney's Office (OCDA) from Dekraai's case and ruled that he couldn't be sentenced to death because of the misconduct.

After that ruling, Paul Wilson, whose wife Christy was among those killed by Dekraai, told LAist: “They’ve taken the largest mass murder in Orange County history and they have completely and utterly screwed that case up.”

News of misconduct spreads

As people in custody and their lawyers found out about the debacle, which was extensively covered by local and national media, some discovered their own cases involved the same methods and actors as the ones behind the misconduct in Dekraai’s case.

"If you're sitting in state prison, you're going to probably know about it, you're going to hear about it," Sanders said about early news of the snitch scandal. "People would write in. People would say, 'Hey, I want to have my case addressed.' All sorts of things like that."

Some realized that police officers or sheriff's deputies who testified in their cases were associated with misconduct in the Dekraai case, giving them grounds to question those officers' testimony.

Others came to suspect there might be evidence about informants used in their case that hadn't been turned over to their defense team.

Ramon Alvarez was among those who successfully challenged his conviction. He had been found guilty in 2012 of shooting a man in the head and then storing the body in a Santa Ana yard in a kiddie pool full of ice.

His murder conviction was dismissed last year after he presented evidence that a known jailhouse informant had lied in his case in exchange for an $11,000 check from the Santa Ana Police Department. An assistant district attorney had told the jury in Alvarez's trial that the informant had not been offered anything for his testimony.

A report last year from the Justice Department confirmed that failing to disclose the police department’s payment violated Alvarez's constitutional rights. Federal investigators also pointed to the prosecutor's motive. "The prosecutor conceded during our interview that he could not have successfully prosecuted Alvarez without [the informant]’s testimony," the DOJ investigators wrote, adding that "the only reason for the jury to believe [the informant], who 'had a rap sheet a mile long,' was that he was getting nothing for his testimony."

Judge Ebrahim Baytieh, who has been accused of misconduct while a prosecutor in the O.C. District Attorney's office, now runs Orange County's CARE Court, a court-mandated mental health treatment program.

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Snitch Scandal 2.0?

In some of the cases revisited because of alleged misconduct, O.C. sheriff's deputies refused to testify about their use of informants in order to protect themselves from self-incrimination. In other words, they pleaded the Fifth Amendment.

That's what led a judge to throw out a murder conviction against Paul Smith in 2021. Smith was convicted in 2010 for allegedly stabbing his childhood friend Robert Haugen to death in 1988 and setting his body on fire in Haugen's Sunset Beach apartment.

But a judge ordered a new trial after deputies refused to testify. Spitzer, O.C.’s district attorney, said at the time that top prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh, who's now an O.C. Superior Court judge, failed to turn over evidence of the informant use to the defense.

Spitzer fired Baytieh in February 2022, but the former prosecutor went on to win election to the O.C. Superior Court a few months later, with endorsements from dozens of current and former judges and law enforcement leaders.

In a lengthy court document filed last month in Smith's case, Sanders now alleges that Baytieh was at the center of an "enormous web of deception" designed to cover up misconduct that helped prosecutors win cases while cheating defendants out of their right to a fair trial.

[Read our story: OC Snitch Case: Former Top Prosecutor, Now Judge, Accused Of Criminal Cover-Up By Public Defender]

"As detailed for the first time in this motion, Baytieh energetically worked to prevent both the informant program from being uncovered and evidence about specific informants being disclosed because he knew that these disclosures would make it more difficult to win particular cases," Sanders wrote.

Sanders also alleges that Baytieh — who had been lauded for his ethics at the district attorney's office and put in charge of determining which evidence prosecutors needed to disclose — was in fact among the worst offenders in the jailhouse snitch scandal.

A spokesperson for Orange County Superior Court has said the court and judicial officers are prohibited by ethical rules from discussing active cases. The district attorney's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations.

In the motion, Sanders cites an additional 98 cases — 45 of them involving murder charges — where he said defense attorneys should have been handed evidence that could help their clients' cases.

Sanders argues that the misconduct is so egregious that the murder charges against Smith should be dropped.

How common is this kind of misconduct?

Possley, from the National Registry of Exonerations, said we don't really know how common it is for law enforcement officials and prosecutors to withhold evidence because it's a "hidden crime."

"What we know is that sometimes this stuff comes to light decades later," he said.

The National Registry of Exonerations found in a 2020 report that official misconduct, usually by police officers or prosecutors, contributed to false convictions in 54% of cases where the defendant was later cleared of charges. Black exonerees were more likely than white exonerees to have faced misconduct in their cases, especially when charged with murder or drug crimes.

The report found that hiding evidence that could have helped a defendant prove their innocence was the most common type of misconduct, having been involved in 44% of the cases they examined.

The researchers didn't specifically look at how often the use of jailhouse informants was tied to the misconduct. But a review of the registry's database turns up 164 out of 3,385 cases in which official misconduct and jailhouse informants played a role in a person's exoneration.

The registry, which has been collecting data since 1989, defines exoneration as being completely cleared of charges based on new evidence of innocence.

Not all snitch scandals have such a far reach

Orange County is certainly not the first place to get caught up in scandals over jailhouse informants. The problem goes way back and wide — across the country and right next door in Los Angeles.

L.A.'s own jailhouse informant scandal, which came to light in the late 1980s, blew up when a prolific informant named Leslie White showed authorities how he could fake a murder confession from a defendant in jail by impersonating officials to get information about a case. He would then finagle placement in the same room as the target so he could make a confession look plausible.

"Perjury has been committed," White wrote from jail in a 1988 Los Angeles Times op-ed. "That is a fact, not a possibility."

At the time, the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office said it planned to review every case in the preceding decade in which a jailhouse snitch testified to getting a confession.

A few years later, a grand jury investigating the scandal reported there were between 150 and 250 criminal cases in which jailhouse informants had testified over the previous decade. But it's unclear how many of those cases were reopened because of the damning revelations about informants in L.A. jails.

The National Registry of Exonerations includes nine people in L.A. County whose ultimate finding of innocence was at least partially due to official misconduct and the use of a jailhouse informant.

But unlike Sanders' list of cases affected by misconduct in the O.C. snitch scandal, LAist could find no record of the total number of cases impacted by L.A.'s snitch scandal, including cases in which sentences were reduced or a new trial was ordered.

Why the apparent difference? Possley said a big reason is Sanders. In L.A., there was no similarly determined defense attorney working to identify and revisit cases that may have been tainted.

"Sanders has had to swim upstream the whole goddamn time," Possley said.

He said there has historically been resistance among criminal justice officials to make the kinds of misconduct connections that Sanders has among disparate cases. "Because they know that there's a problem and that starting to tug on that string might unravel a pretty big piece of fabric," he said.

Sanders himself credits the O.C. public defender's office for giving him and other colleagues the time and resources to investigate the extent, and effects, of misconduct.

"Our office has encouraged and allowed me and others to do this work now for nearly a decade," Sanders said. "We're going into the second decade here. … And even with that, it's going to be difficult for all of the cases to get addressed in the way they should."

Natapoff, the Harvard scholar who's an expert in snitching, said the O.C. scandal is "both a cautionary tale of what happens when we leave the informant market unregulated and also a sign to us that without public defender offices and attorneys willing to spend the resources to uncover these kinds of scandals, we are likely never to learn about them."

A new conversation about criminal justice

Natapoff says informants are just one aspect of a system that has turned criminal justice into a marketplace.

"The people who run the jails understand that this market is robust, that information can be obtained — fabricated or not, as it were — and prosecutors understand that there is a machinery for producing information in the jails, which comes with its own baggage," she said.

Incarcerated people — and most anyone who's spent time in custody — also understand "that if they can produce information about a cellmate or someone else in the jail, that a reward will be forthcoming," Natapoff added.

One of the reasons the public doesn't hear more about the misuse of jailhouse informants, she said, is because the vast majority of criminal cases — about nine in 10 — end in plea deals, not trials.

"In effect, the informant market is the sort of under-the-table, black market version of our general plea bargaining system, which says we negotiate all cases, we negotiate all guilt," Natapoff said. "We almost never litigate the facts anymore."

In a system that runs on deals, she said, “law enforcement is incentivized, even systemically encouraged, to engage in all kinds of deal-making with suspects and defendants who might be useful to them."

But as informant scandals have emerged over the years, an increasing number of jurisdictions have enacted reforms, which Natapoff chronicles on her website.

Plus, she said, the conversation around criminal justice has changed over the years.

"Twenty years ago, we did not have the so-called bipartisan consensus that mass incarceration is a terrible idea. Twenty years ago, we were not having a conversation about Black Lives Matter or debtors' prison or all the conversations that we now have about the unfairnesses and the dysfunctions of our criminal system," Natapoff said.

Innocence projects have increasingly sprung up to help people who were wrongly convicted challenge their fate. On the institutional side, many district attorneys' offices, including Orange County, have opened "conviction integrity units" to investigate claims of innocence.

But because of the decentralized nature of criminal justice in the U.S., reforms tend to be piecemeal, Natapoff said, and uncovering misconduct is often up to outsiders.

"The criminal system itself does not divulge these facts," Natapoff said, referring to the big informant scandals of recent decades. "It was advocates, it was the innocence movement, it was journalism starting to chip away at the culture of secrecy."

As Californians rush to file their taxes before the April 15 deadline, the candidates vying to be California’s next governor have laid out competing visions for the future of taxation in the nation’s largest state.

Leading candidates have proposed eliminating income taxes, cutting taxes for businesses, increasing taxes on corporations and raising taxes on commercial properties.

Not on that list: taxing billionaires.

None of the candidates polling in double digits has embraced the tax proposal, sending shockwaves through California politics: a one-time tax on the wealth of billionaires that a health care union is trying to qualify for the November ballot. But while Gov. Gavin Newsom has spent his final year in office arguing that the state has a spending problem, not a revenue problem, the Democrats most likely to succeed him are eyeing ways to bring new money into the state’s coffers.

Democrats Katie Porter and Tom Steyer have proposed new taxes on large corporations — albeit in different forms — to offset federal health care cuts, boost education funding and help fill structural budget deficits projected to reach $35 billion in the coming years. Porter has also aligned with Republicans Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco in promising to cut taxes for working families and businesses, though the Republicans’ plans would go much further.

None of the leading candidates has indicated which state programs they would cut to make up for lost tax revenue. But in a year when affordability is the dominant voter concern, taxes are top of mind.

“If you’re gonna talk about affordability — and affordability is the main kind of buzzword of the campaign — well, you gotta start with taxes,” said Tim Anaya of the Sacramento-based Pacific Research Institute, a libertarian, free-market think tank.

A tax code ‘frozen in amber’

California’s tax code has been largely frozen in amber for the past century. When voters limited property tax increases through Proposition 13 in 1978, they made the state more dependent on a progressive income tax that relies disproportionately on the high incomes and capital gains of a relatively small number of residents. As a result, California tax revenues fluctuate wildly based on how tech and other large companies perform in the stock market.

Over the past 40 years, efforts to change California’s tax law have largely nibbled around the edges. No one has proposed a wholesale reform of the system, Anaya said.

The governor’s race is playing out against the backdrop of negotiations to shave billions of dollars off state spending next year to close the state’s growing structural deficit. In budget hearings this spring, finance officials in Newsom’s administration have made clear that the governor is not interested in pursuing any new taxes.

Like his predecessor, Jerry Brown, Newsom has bemoaned the annual swings between surpluses and deficits driven by gyrations in personal income tax and capital gains revenue. But he has done little to either broaden the tax base or bring in new forms of revenue, said Chris Hoene, executive director of the left-leaning California Budget & Policy Center.

“He has not done very much on the tax front,” Hoene said. “He’s been more inclined to actually give away new or expanded tax credits — like he became a big proponent of expanding the film tax credit.”

The top Democratic candidates for governor — Porter and Steyer — are vowing to boost state revenues, primarily by honing in on big business.

Hoene said it’s no surprise that their proposals lean into familiar ideas such as raising taxes on corporate profits or property, rather than the relatively novel approach of taxing overall wealth.

“Some of these newer ideas, like taxing wealth … those are things that need to be cooked a bit longer,” Hoene said. “If I were a gubernatorial candidate, I’d be saying, ‘hey, there’s some low-hanging fruit we should be going after first.’”

There’s also some unlikely overlap. Porter and Hilton both propose eliminating state income tax on earnings less than $100,000, a change that would affect more than 70% of California residents who file tax returns. (Porter’s proposal focuses on families, while Hilton said he would extend the exemption to all filers.)

Hilton also proposed reducing the $800 minimum franchise tax that businesses have to pay, regardless of their profits.

Among the lower-polling candidates, San José Mayor Matt Mahan and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond — both Democrats — have offered tax plans on opposite ends of the party’s ideological spectrum.

Thurmond supports the one-time 5% tax on the wealth of billionaires, which could raise up to $100 billion for health care and food assistance. Mahan vows to oppose all tax increases until oversight measures are in place.

The other candidates have not released detailed tax proposals.

Here’s what we know about the leading candidate’s tax plans so far:

Tom Steyer

Steyer argued that while the richest Californians should pay more, the state should focus on taxing corporations. He supports a proposal to close the so-called “water’s edge” loophole that allows multinational corporations to shelter their profits in countries with low tax rates to shield their international profits from state taxes. The proposal would require these corporations to pay taxes based on a share of their global income.

It’s an idea that progressives have floated for years but never managed to pass. This year, ahead of the November governor’s race, Sacramento legislators will debate closing the loophole again.

Steyer also floated a special election in 2027 to pass an increase on commercial property taxes, which were capped by Proposition 13.

Steyer and other progressives have long wanted to split off commercial properties from Proposition 13 protections, an idea known as “split roll.” In 2020, state voters rejected a measure to do just that.

“I am proposing closing a corporate real estate tax loophole that’s existed for over 40 years,” Steyer told KQED’s Political Breakdown. “That brings in more money to the state, that is permanent, that is completely fair.”

Steve Hilton

Hilton argued California’s budget problems are due to overspending, noting that the state budget has nearly doubled since 2017. He also said the state’s affordability problem is tied to how expensive it is to do business in California.

Hilton noted that California, the nation’s most populous state, has more people in poverty than any other state, according to federal government statistics.

“Why?” he said on Political Breakdown. “Because of all these combinations of the spending and the policies that are making it so difficult to start and grow businesses. As a result of that, costs go up. As a result of that, we increase welfare payments because people are struggling. That means taxes go higher. That means it becomes even more expensive. And we’ve got to get out of that cycle.”

Hilton said he will make the state more affordable by eliminating state income tax for Californians earning less than $100,000 and imposing a flat 7.5% tax on earnings over $100,000. Currently, the income tax tops out at 12.3% for individuals making more than $722,000 a year.

He opposed any changes to Proposition 13 and wants to eliminate the minimum franchise tax, which is about $800 annually for all businesses.

Hilton believes the tax cuts will grow California’s economy, which could result in more tax revenue.

Katie Porter

Porter framed her tax plan as key to tackling affordability. At its center: eliminating state income taxes for families who make under $100,000.

“The state takes a chunk of many people’s paychecks,” she said on Political Breakdown. “$100,000 allows people to make ends meet, but also to do the things we need them to do: To save for retirement. To be able to get a house, to be able to put a little money away for college.”

Porter said she would pay for that tax cut by changing California’s corporate tax, which is currently a flat 8.84%, no matter how much a company makes. She wants to increase it gradually, with the highest-earning corporations paying up to 9.75%.

“That would generate enough revenue … to deliver on my promise of free college tuition,” Porter said.

Her free college tuition plan would allow Californians to attend two years of community college for free, then transfer to a University of California or California State University campus, where the state would cover their tuition.

Chad Bianco

Bianco’s campaign said his tax priorities are “straightforward”: he wants to cut them and make up for lost revenue with undefined “wasteful spending” cuts.

Bianco proposed eliminating the state income tax entirely, opposing any new taxes and reducing “cost drivers like the gas tax,” according to a campaign spokesperson.

In a recent interview with KVCR, Bianco accused Democratic leaders of “bilking” the state for billions of dollars, pointing toward state contracts with nonprofits. He estimated annual waste and fraud at up to $50 billion — without providing specifics.

“California government is broken,” he said. “Number one, we absolutely have to stop the waste, the fraud, and the abuse going on in our government … So you eliminate all of the fraud, you become oil independent and use that to fund government, and now we don’t have to pay income taxes.”

He also would “provide targeted relief, including reducing or eliminating state taxes on tips.”

But in a debate with Hilton April 4 at the Lincoln Club of Coachella Valley, Bianco suggested that upending the state’s tax system would be more difficult than repealing regulations enacted by previous governors.

“Regulations are easy, we sign all of those away…all of those boards and commissions can be suspended, the regulations can be suspended,” Bianco said. “The taxes are going to be a different story.”

KVCR’s Madison Aument contributed reporting to this story.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced its 2026 class of inductees on Monday night, a list of eight performers that includes an R&B legend, a heavy metal band and a drummer-turned-frontman whose music dominated mainstream pop-rock in the 1980s.

In recent years, the Rock Hall has expanded its definition of rock icons to include artists from a wider range of genres and backgrounds. The basic rules for induction have remained the same, though:

Artists become eligible for nomination 25 years after the release of their first commercial recording (in other words, artists whose debuts came out in 2001 are newly eligible this year). There are four different categories of inductees:

• Performers whose music and cultural impact has changed the course of rock and roll. 
• Influential musicians whose innovative styles have propelled cultural change, which this year includes key innovative voices in African and Latin music. 
• A "musical excellence" award designated for writers, producers and session musicians who have played a key role in rock history.
• The Ahmet Ertegun award, honoring industry professionals who are not performers but have made a significant impact on the business of music. 

The official induction ceremony will take place on Nov. 14 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. It will be streamed on ABC and Disney+ in December.

Performer Category

Phil Collins
Even though he was inducted into the Rock Hall as a member of Genesis in 2010, it was Collins' solo career, especially a string of hits in the 1980s, that helped turn him into one of the most commercially successful artists of that decade. The drummer-turned-singer is widely known for popularizing the "gated snare" recording technique — which cut off the lingering reverb from the drums — and resulted in an explosive sound that became a signature sound of the era. Collins' career spans over five decades and has earned him a long list of accolades, including an Academy Award for best original song in 2000 for "You'll Be In My Heart" from Disney's Tarzan.

Billy Idol
The British rocker Billy Idol enters the Rock Hall on his second nomination. Known for hits like "Dancing with Myself," "Rebel Yell" and "White Wedding," the bleach-blonde singer's punk rock attitude continues to reach fans around the world more than four decades since the release of his debut solo album.

Iron Maiden
Heavy metal fans rejoice! Iron Maiden is finally being inducted into the Rock Hall on its third nomination. Since the 1980s, the band has been redefining heavy rock with anthemic storytelling, full-throttle instrumentation and spooky iconography. Different iterations of the band's mascot, Eddie, have appeared on Iron Maiden's album covers and merch for decades, becoming a key fixture of a particular strain of teen rebellion.

Joy Division/New Order
After three nominations, Joy Division and New Order are entering the Rock Hall under a joint induction, recognizing the link between the groups. Both bands featured guitarist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris, who were forced to reimagine their sound after the death of singer and songwriter Ian Curtis in 1980. Joy Division's moody post-punk sound, which featured the baritone vocals of Curtis, gave way to New Order's more electronic, dance-driven rhythms, which proved massively popular in the 1980s.

Oasis
Today is gonna be the day that Oasis gets into the Rock Hall. (Well, November 14 will be the actual day.) The Britpop group, led by brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, has had a resurgence since their highly-anticipated reunion tour last year (which briefly broke Ticketmaster and had fans on both sides of the Atlantic crying their hearts out).

Sade
The English band named for lead vocalist Sade Adu changed the sonic landscape of the 1980s and '90s with its blend of jazz, soul and R&B. The velvety, intimate quality of Sade's music echoes across generations of artists, from Drake to Adele, and has now earned the group Rock Hall inductee status.

Luther Vandross
After starting his career as a background vocalist for stars including David Bowie, Roberta Flack, Stevie Wonder and many more, Luther Vandross became an R&B and soul legend under his own name, thanks to the sheer power of his voice beginning in the 1980s. (He was also a producer for A-listers like Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross.) With over a dozen studio albums, his influence has reached across generations to stars including Beyoncé, Alicia Keys and most recently, Kendrick Lamar, who named one of the biggest hits of 2025 after him. Vandross will be inducted after his first Rock Hall nomination.

Wu-Tang Clan
You can see the Rock Hall's effort to expand the definition of rock icons in past years particularly strongly when it comes to the hip-hop acts it inducts. At least one act from the genre — including the Notorious B.I.G., Missy Elliott, A Tribe Called Quest and Jay-Z — each year since 2020. Considering Wu-Tang Clan's collective and individual output, which spans more than 30 years and expanded the East Coast's mark on the genre with references to vintage kung-fu movies and dark humor, it's no wonder the Rock Hall is finally giving the Staten Island crew its long-deserved flowers.

Early Influence Award

Celia Cruz
The Cuban singer, widely known as The Queen of Salsa, becomes the first primarily Spanish-language artist to be inducted into the Rock Hall. After rising through the ranks of Havana's music scene in the 1950s, Cruz left her home country in exile and eventually landed in New York City, where she became one of the most prominent voices of the legendary salsa label, Fania Records.

Fela Kuti
At the end of the 1960s and into the '70s, the Nigerian singer and political activist helped create the Afrobeat genre by combining West African highlife with elements of jazz and funk. Known for his electrifying, unconventional live performances, the multi-instrumentalist is the Rock Hall's first African pop star.

Queen Latifah
Queen Latifah was only 19 years old when she released her debut album, All Hail the Queen, in 1989. Female empowerment has been at the forefront of her music and image since the beginning of her career. With songs like "Ladies First" and "U.N.I.T.Y.," Queen Latifah changed the landscape of male-dominated rap; alongside her music career, she has found arguably greater success as an actor.

MC Lyte
Another teenage pioneer in the world of hip-hop, the Brooklyn-raised rapper gained popularity with socially-conscious lyricism that tackled issues including street violence and drug addiction.

Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons played with The Byrds and helped spearhead the band's seminal country rock album Sweetheart of the Rodeo, which came out in 1968 — but he was technically considered a "sideman" and not a full member of the band. That's why Parsons was not inducted alongside his bandmates when The Byrds entered the Rock Hall in 1991. Now, the Americana visionary — who recorded a pair of celebrated and influential solo albums that featured duets with Emmylou Harris and also played with the Flying Burrito Brothers and the International Submarine Band — gets his due for melding folk, Southern twang and rock and roll before his death at the age of 26, in 1973.

Musical Excellence Award

Linda Creed
In the 1970s, Linda Creed wrote and produced love songs that would come to define the sound of Philadelphia soul, including the Stylistics' hits "Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)" and "You Are Everything," both of which were later covered by Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye. After being diagnosed with cancer at age 26, Creed wrote the song "The Greatest Love of All." Whitney Houston's rendition of the song would go on to top Billboard's Hot 100 chart shortly after Creed's death in 1986.

Arif Mardin
Arif Mardin's producer credits span more than four decades and dozens of legendary collaborations, including with Aretha Franklin, the Bee Gees, John Prine and Norah Jones. Born in Turkey, Mardin started working at Atlantic Records in the early 1960s and eventually became an executive and one of the label's most reliable hitmakers.

Jimmy Miller
Jimmy Miller signed a recording contract as a singer before finding his true calling behind the console, particularly for his work with the Rolling Stones across five albums: Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main St. and Goats Head Soup. Known for encouraging and harnessing a group's raw, live energy in recording sessions, the producer left an indelible mark on the sound of rock and roll in the 1960s and '70s.

Rick Rubin
Rick Rubin co-founded Def Jam Recordings while studying film and television at New York University. He went on to turn the label into a powerhouse of 1980s and '90s hip-hop, producing and releasing albums by acts including LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, Run-DMC and Public Enemy. He later founded the label American Recordings and served as co-president of Columbia Records. Since the founding of American Recordings, and particularly in his work with Johnny Cash, Rubin has become known for his skill in musical subtraction — paring down a recording to its essential elements.

Ahmet Ertegun Award

Ed Sullivan
He began his career as a sports journalist, but in 1948, Sullivan became the host of a television program — originally called Toast of the Town and later renamed The Ed Sullivan Show — that was welcomed into millions of people's living rooms every week. Sullivan's show widely introduced Americans to countless musicians, including Elvis Presley, The Jackson 5, The Supremes and, maybe most famously, The Beatles, whose first appearance on his show, in February 1964, was, at the time, one of the most-watched programs in history.
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