ATLANTA — After nearly six weeks of delays, the judge overseeing Georgia's longest trial ever brought jurors back on Monday.
Judge Paige Reese Whitaker is overseeing the trial involving rapper Young Thug and the alleged YSL street gang after the initial one was removed. Since she was named to oversee the case on July 17, Judge Whitaker has held several hearings without the jury involved as she caught up to speed and laid some ground rules for how proceedings will move forward.
But one of the biggest lingering questions about the return of the jury in the YSL RICO trial is: How will the jury be told there is a new judge presiding over the case?
The defense wanted a pointed approach: They wanted jurors to know why Glanville had left nine months into the case and for his comments not to influence their decision. The state, however, opted for more neutral language. But Judge Whitaker had the final say on what jurors were told.
"The jury is going to be fraught with questions," former prosecutor Darryl Cohen told 11Alive. "They will likely go back in the jury room, and though they're not supposed to talk about the trial, they may very well say, what is going on? Why were we out for so long?"
Judge Whitaker started proceedings by bringing the jury in and introducing herself as the new judge proceeding over the trial. She also told jurors to disregard any testimony and evidence that came after the 3 p.m. break on Wednesday, June 12, which was the last break for that day.
Whitaker asked jurors to speak up if they were unable to disregard prior testimony, and no one did, signaling that all jurors agreed to strike everything after June 12.
The judge also took all notes from jurors after that date.
Watch the jury's instructions below | The story continues below
Over the last month, the trial has been assigned two new judges, after Judge Ural Glanville was taken off the case. The interruption stemmed from a meeting between Glanville, prosecutors and a witness with no defense attorneys present, known as an ex parte meeting, that drew furious objections from the defense attorneys and the motions to have Glanville taken off the case. Ultimately, those motions succeeded.
In theory, the jury should know nothing about any of this, as part of jury duty is to avoid outside information about the case.
"Regardless of the fact that they're not supposed to be watching the news, [the jurors] can't avoid it. It's all over everywhere," Cohen said. "It makes for questions that we really can't answer. This has never happened before in the state of Georgia."
YSL trial live stream | Monday, August 12
More on the Young Thug, YSL trial
Back on May 9, 2022, the hip-hop world was jolted with the news that rapper Young Thug - a Grammy winner, trendsetter and Atlanta icon - had been arrested.
It's been over two years now that the artist, whose legal name is Jeffery Williams, has remained behind bars. The central charge against him is that three letters with which his name has become synonymous because of his artistic success in launching the "Young Stoner Life" label, YSL, actually signalize a violent gang: Young Slime Life.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis named Williams, among other metro Atlanta rappers and those with ties to the alleged gang, to bring charges against a total of 28 people in a sweeping 88-page indictment. And the case alleges that not only is Young Thug among the gang's members, he is its kingpin.
"He is the one they're all afraid of," a prosecutor said at a June 2022 hearing. "He's the one that's King Slime."
A long pretrial process passed to an even longer jury selection process, and across this time the co-defendant list dwindled with plea deals and other circumstances keeping some of the individuals charged from remaining on the case.
The trial finally began in earnest in November 2023, already considered the longest in Georgia's history.
Now that is in full swing, 11Alive is keeping track of key developments in the case and highlighting moments in the courtroom. Follow along in the timeline below.