Steel was briefly sentenced to 20 days in jail over the weekend, although he continued to represent Young Thug during the week, adding a layer of surrealism to what was already the longest criminal trial in court history. Georgia. More than six months after opening arguments, prosecutors are not even halfway through the proposed list of witnesses, and no one knows where the trial will go from here.
Here’s what you need to know to make up for the chaos.
The 32-year-old rapper was born Jeffery Lamar Williams but is widely known as Young Thug. He’s a Grammy-winning artist from Atlanta who changed the sound of Southern rap with lyrics that ranged from childish to poetic.
He was born one of 11 children in Atlanta’s housing projects on Cleveland Avenue, about five miles from the courthouse where he now spends his days, accused of leading a violent criminal street gang under the guise of a label.
What did Young Thug do? Why is he being judged?
Young Thug faces nine charges, including possession of drugs and weapons, engaging in criminal street gang activity and conspiring to violate the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. (RICO). The RICO charge alone carries a potential sentence of five to 20 years in prison.
Young Thug’s case is linked to 27 other alleged gang associates arrested at the same time, in May 2022, five of whom are on trial alongside him. All six defendants have pleaded not guilty and maintain their innocence. “YSL members and associates moved like a pack, with defendant Jeffery Williams at its head,” lead prosecutor Adriane Love said during opening statements in November, referring to the alleged Young Slime Life street gang. .
Some of the government’s evidence includes Young Thug’s lyrics – lines such as “Gave the lawyer almost two million.” He does all the murders,” which defense attorneys say are fictitious. But if he is found guilty of violating RICO, Young Thug could be detained. responsible for the crimes of anyone else in the alleged gang, which prosecutors say include homicide, assault with a deadly weapon and armed robbery. This is because the government is trying the case under Georgia’s racketeering law, raising the stakes significantly for both. accused and prosecutors.
What are RICO charges and how do they relate to this case?
The RICO statute was created about half a century ago to prosecute mafia activity and other forms of racketeering. This essentially allows prosecutors to dismantle entire organizations, holding those at the top accountable for crimes committed by lower-level associates.
Fulton County Prosecutor Fani T. Willis (D) is using the same law to try former President Donald Trump and more than a dozen of his allies on charges of criminal conspiracy to try to overturn the election results. Georgia’s 2020 presidential election.
Prosecutors in the Young Thug case are using RICO to show how the co-defendants allegedly operated as a gang called Young Slime Life. Prosecutors wrote in an 88-page indictment that the alleged Blood-affiliated gang has the same initials as Young Thug’s music label, Young Stoner Life.
But RICO cases are inherently complex and fraught, which was certainly the case in Young Thug’s trial.
Why is the case in such a mess?
Young Thug’s trial is already the longest in Georgia history, with a jury selection process lasting nearly a year and an unexpected break weeks after opening arguments last year, when one of Young Thug’s co-defendants was stabbed in prison. Since the trial resumed in January, it has been bogged down in a storm of administrative incidents and hours lost due to legal delays.
Legal experts said there are many reasons why this case is so tumultuous. On the one hand, the rapper and his five co-defendants all have their legal teams operating in court. Criminal trials are inherently slow and deliberative, and they can become glacial as the number of defendants and lawyers in the room multiplies.
Another reason is the extreme length of the trial, which gave rise to some strange situations, including zoom porn bombardments, jurors’ faces accidentally broadcast live, and a co-defendant accused of hand-to-hand drug exchanges in the courtroom audience. . At one point, a Fulton County deputy was arrested for allegedly bringing contraband into the jail and having an “inappropriate relationship” with a defendant.
After hundreds of days, everyone involved in the case appears tired, but there is no end in sight, with defense lawyers warning the trial could stretch into 2025. Judge Ural Glanville even threatened to hold the hearing on the weekend if the proceedings did not proceed. accelerate.
Why was Young Thug’s lawyer sent to jail?
Steel was held in contempt after accusing Glanville and prosecutors of inappropriately meeting with the prosecution’s star witness, Kenneth “Lil Woody” Copeland, an alleged YSL associate. Despite being a sworn witness for the prosecution, Copeland refused to appear in court Friday and was immediately jailed for doing so. He ended up testifying Monday, when prosecutors questioned him about his ties to Young Thug and the other defendants.
Steel confronted Glanville that afternoon about a private meeting that he said took place before Copeland took the stand. The lawyer said a source told him that Glanville and prosecutors had threatened to jail Copeland until the conclusion of the trial if he did not testify.
“If it’s true, it’s coercion, witness intimidation,” Steel told Glanville.
Glanville said Steel was given incorrect information. The judge refused to release a transcript of the meeting, even though a court reporter was present. He also rejected the defense’s multiple requests for a mistrial and demanded to know who told Steel about the meeting.
After refusing to disclose his source, Steel was found guilty of criminal contempt. Late Monday, Glanville sentenced Steel to 20 weekend days in Fulton County Jail starting Friday. Steel continued to appear in court and filed an appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court seeking his release on bail and the dismissal of the contempt conviction. The Georgia Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed enforcement of the contempt charge against Steel, meaning he will not go to prison while the court considers Steel’s motion to dismiss the charge of contempt. Steel had asked to be sent to the Cobb County jail, where Young Thug is being held, but the judge did not rule on that request.
On Tuesday, Copeland appeared to fire his attorney, Kayla Bumpus, who Glanville said may be behind Steel’s allegations. (Copeland simply told the judge, “She shot,” when explaining his decision to let her go.) The judge asked Bumpus to appear in court later this month to explain his exit from the trial.
Aside from the damage caused in the courtroom, others see the recent chaos as a potential reason for a mistrial. Bradford Cohen, an attorney who defended rapper Kodak Black in a 2022 drug case, supported Steel on social media, saying the arrest and alleged secret meeting could lead to a mistrial.
“This case and this judge are off the reservation,” he wrote. “This is an instant mistrial. I can’t believe the judge thinks that taking a defense attorney into custody does not constitute a mistrial. He added: “Defense lawyers across the country should be terrified by the lack of judicial knowledge. »
But this is just speculation. The Young Thug trial has seemingly gone off the rails several times throughout its long history, and only time will tell what happens next.
Holly Bailey contributed to this report.