Besides the pending case against former President Donald Trump and 18 others for allegedly attempting to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results, the trial of rapper Young Thug — legal name Jeffery Lamar Williams — may be the most significant criminal proceeding in Atlanta since the public school cheating scandal nearly a decade ago.
The trial, which kicked off with opening statements earlier this week, will test the limits of some prosecution tactics and the protection of artists’ First Amendment rights, and see jurors try to decide the line between a record label and a criminal organization in a city where entertainment, street culture, and violence often bleed into each other.
Fani Willis, who back in 2014 was a member of former District Attorney Paul Howard’s team, successfully prosecuted 11 Atlanta Public Schools employees under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) act. Since she was elected Fulton County DA in 2020, Willis has gained attention for her aggressive use of the RICO statute.
However, Willis won’t be the one presenting evidence and cross-examining witnesses this time around. Adriane Love, Willis’ chief deputy, was in the courtroom with the responsibility for convincing jurors that Young Thug used his wealth and influence as one of Atlanta’s most prominent musicians to run Young Slime Life (YSL), a criminal street gang based in his southwest Atlanta neighborhood. It will also be one of the most high profile cases of a rapper’s lyrics being used against them by the prosecution.
Attorneys for the defendants have repeatedly argued that lyrics are protected under the artist’s right to freedom of speech, but earlier this month, Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville ruled that lyrics can be admitted as trial evidence.
Free speech and racial justice advocates have frequently criticized the way rap lyrics are racialized and criminalized in a way lyrics from other genres aren’t. Earlier this year, Democratic U.S. Reps. Hank Johnson, who represents Lithonia, and Jamaal Bowman of New York reintroduced federal legislation to prevent the use of lyrics in criminal and civil proceedings.
In August 2022, Atlanta City Council member Antonio Lewis — who represents the Cleveland Avenue neighborhood where Young Thug was raised — introduced a resolution urging the Georgia General Assembly to amend its statutes to limit the use of rap lyrics as evidence in a criminal trial. The legislation stalled in committee last month.
Ultimately it will be up to the jurors to decide whether the rap lyrics like “Fuck the judge, YSL, this that mob life,” from the 2016 song “Slime Shit” by Young Thug featuring Yak Gotti, and “We don’t speak ’bout shit on wax, it’s all mob business/We known to kill the biggest cats of all kitties” from the Young Thug’s 2019 song “Just How It Is,” help to corroborate the prosecution’s theory that Young Thug was the head of a criminal enterprise.
Where are we now?
A lot has changed in this case since May 2022, when the initial indictment came down naming Young Thug and 27 others with conspiracy to violate Georgia’s RICO Act.
Before jury selection even began in January, half of the original 28 co-defendants had already accepted pleas or had their cases severed, meaning they would stand trial separately.
Now only six of the original 28 co-defendants remain: Young Thug, Yak Gotti (real name Deamonte Kendrick), Rodalius Ryan, Shannon Stillwell, Quamarvious Nichols, and Marquavius Huey. If convicted of racketeering the defendants will face a minimum of 5 years and a maximum of 20 years in prison.
After a long and drawn out selection process, a jury of seven Black women, two white women, two Black men and one white man was finally seated early this month. The trial began with a rocky start on Monday, when the jury had to be escorted from the courtroom in the midst of the prosecutor’s opening statement.
Defense attorneys told the judge they had not been given access to all the slides Love had been showing the jury. Brian Steel, the attorney for Young Thug, made a motion for a mistrial that was ultimately denied.
The judge ordered the slides be shared with the defense attorneys before the prosecutor continued with her remarks.
Afterward, the jury heard from Stillwell’s attorney, Max Schardt, who previewed some of the rebuttals the defense will make to the prosecution’s evidence.
Stillwell is accused of taking part in both murders listed in the 56-count indictment. He and Yak Gotti are accused of the 2015 murder of Donovan Thomas Jr. Stillwell and Nichols are accused in the March 2022 murder of Shymel Drinks. Stillwell has also been arrested and booked under the name Shannon Jackson.
On Tuesday, the jury heard opening remarks from Steel, who repeatedly distanced his client from the charges the other defendants are facing.
While Young Thug is being charged only with conspiracy to violate the RICO act and participation in criminal street gang activity, the prosecution contends that he also directed others to engage in criminal acts on behalf of YSL.
Jurors then heard opening statements from Angela D’Williams, the public defender assigned to Ryan, E. Jay Abt, attorney for Yak Gotti, who is facing conspiracy and murder charges, and Careton Matthews Sr., attorney for Huey.
The trial is expected to last months.
