Fani Willis’ Fulton County District Attorney’s Office filed a motion on Tuesday asking the judge to reconsider the exclusion of evidence in the trial of rapper Young Thug.
Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, and several other defendants are charged with racketeering conspiracy and participation in criminal street gang activity, along with drug and gun violations.
Prosecutors claim that Williams is one of the founding members of YSL, alleging that it stands for the Young Slime Life gang. Williams is CEO of record label YSL, an acronym for Young Stoner Life.
Natrice Miller/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Associated Press
Chief Deputy District Attorney Adriane Love filed a motion on Tuesday to revisit Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker’s ruling to exclude a piece of evidence.
The evidence in question previously led to a motion for a mistrial filed by Williams’ legal team, led by defense attorney Brian Steel. It cited issues with hearsay.
Whitaker held a hearing on the motion September 30 and Love came under fire, accused of misrepresenting a social media post she was attempting to enter as evidence. The judge did not grant the motion, but challenged Love’s approach to the trial.
“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,” Whitaker said. “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. This case is being made much more difficult for everybody because of the haphazard way in which it is being presented.”
Love also filed a motion on Tuesday to allow the state to present all relevant evidence to the jury and deny objections from the defense, which has called the evidence “a waste of time.”
The trial started in January 2023 with jury selection, which took over 10 months to complete. Proceedings have been riddled by scandals and delays, including arrests in the courtroom, allegations of secret meetings and judges getting ousted from the case.
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