Everyone Wants to Know When Young Thug YSL Trial Will End
It has been nearly two years since Young Thug, Gunna and 26 other accused YSL affiliates were arrested and indicted on RICO charges in May of 2022. With Thugger and 13 codefendants currently standing trial in Georgia, strange hiccups and a whole lot of red tape have caused many delays during the trial, which has been ongoing for four months. In fact, many factors indicate the Young Thug YSL RICO trial could drag on for months or even years to come. When will this trial come to an end?
The Length of Young Thug YSL RICO Trial Affects All Involved
With no apparent end in sight, the duration of the far-from-speedy trial is affecting all those involved as well as those who've been following the case for the 22 months since the rappers were arrested. Obviously, Young Thug's career, his personal life and his overall freedom wait in the balance. Gunna is a free man now. As for the selected members of the jury, they are each required by law to serve out the full length of the trial until it comes to a definitive conclusion. At the same time, family members of the accused YSL affiliates and fans in general are all at a standstill eagerly awaiting a verdict that doesn't even appear to be on the horizon.
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Jury Selection Process in Young Thug YSL RICO Trial Takes 10 Months
The jury selection process itself took 10 months before the trial even officially began in November of 2023. After hundreds of potential jurors were vetted at the beginning of last year, presiding Judge Ural Glanville then declared in February of 2023 that 500 more people would be interviewed as part of the selection process. At the time, it was already assumed that the YSL trial could take up to a year, making it difficult for potential jurors to commit to taking that much time away from their typical day-to-day lives.
Read More: Young Thug Judge Orders Juror to Write 30-Page Essay After She Skipped Jury Duty - Report
Wild Moments in Young Thug YSL RICO Trial Indicate No End in Sight
Once the jury was finally picked and the YSL RICO trial's court proceedings kicked off last fall, all that has gone down in the courtroom over the past four months continues to prove that this will be a long, drawn-out process. Aside from scheduled breaks that have lasted for a week or more and sporadic days off due to things attorneys being sick, some of the reasons for delays in the trial have been much more extreme.
In December of 2023, less than one month following the opening statements, Judge Glanville postponed the trial after one of the YSL codefendants, Shannon Stillwell, was stabbed multiple times in his jail cell. The trial suffered an odd moment one month later when a Young Thug fan interrupted the proceedings via Zoom by screaming "Free Thug, mistrial! Free Thug, mistrial!"
In just the past week alone, as the trial reached its 45th day in session over four months, things came to a screeching halt twice due to behavior that is very rarely seen within a courtroom. After an argument broke out between two attorneys on March 14 over a ruling that the prosecution could not include a detective's testimony as evidence, a bailiff had to step in to stop the heated exchange. Then, on March 19, the trial was once again interrupted by a witness for the prosecution who claimed he was too high to properly deliver his testimony.
Read More: Here Are 25 Bizarre Moments in the YSL Trial, the Wildest Trial in Hip-Hop History
How long the Young Thug YSL RICO trail will last remains to be seen. According to Law & Crime Network Executive Producer Cathy Russon, YSL codefendant Deamonte Kendrick has filed a motion to limit the amount of witnesses who are set to take the stand. The motion states that to date, only 40 of the over 400 scheduled witnesses have testified and estimates that at the current rate, the trial will take until at least mid-2027 to complete.
Young Thug likely wants the trial to come to an end so he can find out what his future looks like: a free man or locked up. The ramifications of the pending verdict could find it among the most impactful legal cases in hip-hop history. Especially for Thugger himself.