Young Thug supporters organized a protest at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta following a series of courtroom events which they believe are grounds for a mistrial in the YSL RICO case.
According to NBC affiliate 11Alive, the protest was scheduled to take place Friday morning (October 25) by a group of individuals who believe that “recent events during [court] proceedings have raised questions about the integrity of the trial.”
News of the protest was reported just two days after Judge Paige Whitaker — the third judge to be appointed to preside over the case — dismissed jurors from the courtroom after testimony by Slimelife Shawty included a mistake that could cost the state their case.
While on the witness stand on Wednesday (October 23), the man, born Wunnie Lee, was asked to identify other members of Thugga’s YSL crew who might have been involved with the case by reading a series of social media posts. However, instead of reading the redacted version of the post which was displayed in court, he read an unredacted version including the hashtag “#FreeQua.”
The mistake prompted the defense teams to move for a mistrial, as the jury is not supposed to know which of Young Thug’s co-defendants have previously been incarcerated.
After asking both Slimelife Shawty and the jurors to leave the courtroom, Judge Whitaker proceeded to chastise the prosecution for the mistakes they’ve made throughout the trial so far.
“What I’m trying to do is fix your sloppiness,” she said. “So that everybody won’t have wasted ten, 12 months of their lives in this trial.”
Whitaker then proceeded to pause the trial for the next two days to allow the various defense attorneys to negotiate with the prosecutors, though it was not clear as of this writing what they might be negotiating.
Speaking to Fox 5 Atlanta, protest organizer Ten Wilkerson echoed some of Judge Whitaker’s concerns as he explained what prompted him to organize the gathering.
“My message is at what point do we say this is unfair?,” he said. “What point does the justice system say we got it wrong? We either need to rethink what we’re doing and do the mistrial or dismiss the trial – and when I say try again, I don’t mean try again with the case.”
As it approaches the one year mark since it started in November 2023, Young Thug’s RICO trial is the longest-running courtroom saga in Georgia state history.
Earlier this month, the trial set another new record.
On October 2, X account The Blvck Law Student noted that YSL defense lawyers have filed a total of 45 motions for mistrial since the trial began – none of which have been granted. This is the first time such a thing has ever happened.
The unorthodox record was tallied the day after Thug’s lawyer’s latest motion for mistrial was denied by Judge Whitaker.
While that is a setback for the YSL rapper, Whitaker also slammed the prosecution for how they are presenting their case against Thugger, who they accuse of being the head of a criminal street gang.
In a moment of frustration captured on the court’s livestream, Whitaker admonished prosecutors, saying: “I don’t want to malign the prosecutor standing in front of me right now, so I’m not going to say the possible things it could be.”
She added: “But it is baffling to me that somebody with the number of years of experience that you have, time after time after time, continues to seemingly and purposefully hide the ball to the extent you possibly can, for as long as you possibly can.
“I really don’t want to believe that it is purposeful, but honestly, after a certain number of times, you start to wonder how it could be anything but that. Unless it is just that you are so unorganized that you are throwing this case together as you try it.”Whitaker concluded: “This case is being made much more difficult for everybody because of the haphazard way in which it is being presented.” (HipHopDx)