{"id":2203,"date":"2024-08-09T18:25:09","date_gmt":"2024-08-09T18:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/young-thug-rico-trial-to-resume-after-judge-rejects-mistrial\/"},"modified":"2024-08-09T18:25:09","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T18:25:09","slug":"young-thug-rico-trial-to-resume-after-judge-rejects-mistrial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/young-thug-rico-trial-to-resume-after-judge-rejects-mistrial\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Thug RICO Trial to Resume After Judge Rejects Mistrial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tYoung Thug\u2019s sprawling Atlanta gang trial is set to resume after the judge denied requests to declare a mistrial \u2014 though she also admonished prosecutors for suppressing evidence and ordered them to take remedial training on due process requirements.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a pair of rulings issued Thursday (Aug. 8), Judge Paige Reese Whitaker<\/strong> denied the final two remaining motions for a mistrial over revelations of a secret meeting between the previous presiding judge, prosecutors and a key witness named Kenneth Copeland.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat incident has already resulted in Judge Ural Glanville<\/strong> being removed from the case. But in her decisions Thursday, Whitaker said the secret \u201cex parte\u201d meeting was not enough to force prosecutors to start from scratch after 20 months of trial.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn practical terms, the rulings mean that witness testimony can resume Monday (Aug. 12) after eight weeks of delay caused by the secret meeting and the resulting fallout. But even before that delay, the trial had not been expected to wrap up until early next year.<\/p>\n

\n\tThug \u2014 real name Jeffery Williams \u2014 and dozens of others were indicted in May 2022 over allegations that their YSL was not really a record label called Young Stoner Life but rather a violent Atlanta gang called Young Slime Life. Citing Georgia\u2019s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law, prosecutors claim the group operated a criminal enterprise that committed murders, carjackings, armed robberies, drug dealing and other crimes over the course of a decade.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe trial kicked off in January 2023 but has faced repeated delays and disruptions, including an unprecedented 10-month jury selection, the stabbing of another defendant, and now the tumult over the ex parte meeting and the removal of Glanville. Throughout the entire process, Young Thug has remained in jail; last week, Whitaker denied a renewed motion to release him on bond.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn their mistrial motions, defense attorneys have argued that the secret meeting violated the so-called Brady rule \u2014 a core requirement in American criminal law that prosecutors must hand over evidence that might help defendants. In particular, defense attorneys say they should have been told that, during the secret meeting, Copeland stated he had \u201cnever been truthful a day in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn one of her rulings on Thursday, Whitaker said the failure to alert defense attorneys about Copeland\u2019s statement was \u201clikely inadvertent\u201d and not \u201ca purposeful violation.\u201d But she nonetheless sharply criticized prosecutors for it.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFor a defense attorney, this nugget by a key state\u2019s witness is gold,\u201d Whitaker said. \u201cSo when the prosecution not only did not reduce this statement to writing and produce it, but also asserted in court filings that the defense had no entitlement to know the contents of the ex parte proceedings, this amounted to suppression, whether willful or otherwise, of what was objectively Brady impeachment material.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSince Copeland\u2019s statements were ultimately revealed to defense attorneys and they can still use them to question his credibility with jurors in future proceedings, Whitaker said the prosecutors\u2019 actions did not \u201ctechnically\u201d amount to an actual violation of the Brady rule. But once again, she cautioned prosecutors about any repeats.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe fact that a violation of a defendant\u2019s Constitutional rights has been averted does not, under these circumstances, provide cause for celebration,\u201d the judge wrote. \u201cWhat it does provide is cause for sober reflection and an examination of processes, procedures, and approaches that permitted this likely inadvertent but nonetheless serious Brady lapse to occur.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCiting the fact that it was \u201cnot the first allegation of prosecutorial misconduct in this case,\u201d Whitaker also took an unusual step: She ordered prosecutors to sit down for additional training on disclosing evidence.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe court \u2026 orders, as a remedial measure, that the entire prosecution team working this trial submit to training on Brady and other professional obligations of a prosecutor,\u201d the judge wrote. \u201cThis training will consist of a video replay of training on this topic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA spokesman for the Fulton County District Attorney\u2019s office did not immediately return a request for comment on Whitaker\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Young Thug\u2019s sprawling Atlanta gang trial is set to resume after the judge denied requests to declare a mistrial \u2014 though she also admonished prosecutors for suppressing evidence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[423,2909,697,2359,2513,1095,342,1094],"class_list":["post-2203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-judge","tag-mistrial","tag-rejects","tag-resume","tag-rico","tag-thug","tag-trial","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}