ATLANTA — Prosecutors in the YSL RICO trial said in court Thursday their witness list has 737 people on it.
The state's witness list includes 258 lay witnesses and 479 professional expert witnesses. Traditionally in court proceedings, not all people on witness lists necessarily testify.
The witness list number brings into clearer focus the wide-ranging scope of a trial that will question whether Young Thug is, as prosecutors have alleged, the kingpin - or "King Slime" as he was called in a proceeding last year - of a YSL street gang or if, as his defense attorneys have argued, YSL is simply a record label and lifestyle brand miscast by overly aggressive prosecutors.
The jury selection process was a winding, labored one that concluded this month with the seating of a jury, after the process spanned nearly the entirety of this year. It began in January and already, in April, defense attorneys were calling it "the longest in Georgia history." The jury breakdown includes seven Black women, two white women, two Black men and one white man.
Also this month, Judge Ural Glanville ruled that some rap lyrics - specifically, 17 different sets brought to court by prosecutors - can be used as evidence in the trial for limited purposes, "depending upon or subject to a foundation that is properly laid by the state," the judge said.
Young Thug meanwhile has remained in jail since his initial arrest in May 2022, roughly a year-and-a-half of pretrial detention. His attorneys have lobbied for - and been denied - bond on several occasions, most recently in June.
Attorneys for the rapper have argued his health has declined while incarcerated and that he has "languished" in the Cobb County Jail, sleep deprived due to court appearances and eating many foods lacking in nutrition.
"This lifestyle has caused physically harm to Mr. Williams," his lawyer said at the June hearing, adding that issues with his kidneys coupled with the environment in the jail have caused him to gain weight.
Young Thug will go to trial alongside five other defendants, winnowed down over the long process through plea deals and other circumstances from 28 original co-defendants who were indicted in 2022.