FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Georgia's longest trial ever came to a screeching halt last Wednesday amid a flurry of concerns about whether it could proceed fairly.
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While on the stand, Slimelife Shawty, whose real name is Wunnie Lee, accidentally read the hashtag #FreeQua from an unredacted version of a paper exhibit instead of the redacted version displayed on a monitor.
The jury is not supposed to know which defendants have been incarcerated. Both Marquavius Huey and Quamarvious Nichols — who are both on trial with Jeffery Williams (Young Thug) — have gone by "Qua."
Here's what could happen next, with court expected to resume on Monday morning.
Option 1: Judge orders mistrial without prejudice
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Whitaker said she would consider a mistrial without prejudice.
"Of course, that means the state would be free to try every one of you all again," she cautioned.
Defense attorney Joshua Schiffer, who is not affiliated with this case, said that could benefit the prosecution.
"In a retrial, everybody's already gotten a great peek at the evidence so the state has the ability to go back and know how the attacks against their witnesses are going to come from the defense," he said. "Should Judge Whitaker grant a mistrial without prejudice, the immediate next step will be to the appellate court. There's going to be a lot of objections from the defendants in this case, saying that any granting of a mistrial without prejudice is going to violate their fundamental constitutional rights."
A mistrial ruling would affect all six defendants.
Option 2: Defense strikes a deal with prosecutors
Attorneys for multiple defendants told 11Alive last week they were negotiating with state prosecutors.
While we don't know what those conversations entailed, at least nine defendants from the original indictment have pled guilty so far including Gunna (Sergio Kitchens) and Young Thug's brother Unfoonk (Quantavious Grier).
"Prior plea offers have basically been time served and get out of jail. That's really tempting when you've been on trial for so long," Schiffer said. "The idea of having a retrial is unbelievably expensive and what most people consider cruel, considering how long these presumed innocent defendants have been sitting in pre-trial detention."
Any plea deals would have to be formally accepted in open court before Judge Whitaker. If offered, the decision would be up to each individual defendant.
Option 3: Case carries on
Judge Whitaker has denied more than a dozen motions for mistrial so far. If no deals are reached, the judge could instruct jurors to ignore the #FreeQua comment and move on.
"Why doesn't everybody just enter into some sort of a stipulation that the reference to Qua just now isn't either of these people [on trial]," Whitaker suggested last week. "What I'm trying to do is fix [the state's] sloppiness so that everybody won't have wasted, you know, 10 to 12 months of their lives in this trial."