ATLANTA — As the sprawling RICO trial against the alleged Young Slime Life gang and rapper Young Thug enters a fourth month of jury selection, attorneys predict that process could continue through the summer. Some involved said they're being stretched too thin.
The trial could break records as the longest-running in Fulton County history. For someone with the resources of Young Thug and his attorneys, that may be more manageable.
But there are more than a dozen other defendants incorporated into the gang prosecution, and their ongoing legal defense is becoming burdensom, according to at least one public defender now trying to withdraw from the case.
In a filing submitted earlier this week, Angela D'Williams - the attorney for defendant Rodalius Ryan Jr. - seeks to withdraw her representation of the alleged YSL member over pay that she called "an egregiously low amount for the amount of work and attention this trial requires."
She also notes that the trial, once it begins, could take as many as six months or more.
Included in her filing is a letter from the Georgia Public Defender Council concerning the amount lawyers are being paid to represent some of the other YSL defendants. The letter was addressed to the attorneys for at least two other YSL defendants, indicating D'Williams is not alone in her frustration about pay.
The letter appears to involve a dispute over advertised pay for a Fulton County program and what the Georgia Public Defender Council pays. The letter states, "I must underscore the distinction between GPDC and the separate Fulton County C3 program. The Fulton C3 program is a county-run and county-funded initiative entirely separate from GPDC."
"As you are no doubt aware, you signed contracts to represent your respective clients with GPDC, not the Fulton C3 program," the letter adds. "What the Fulton C3 program does or does not pay attorneys contracted with it has no bearing on your extant contracts with GPDC."
The letter goes on to say "we appreciate the unique circumstances of the YSL trial" and that efforts are being made "to explore the possibility" of additional avenues of compensation for the attorneys.
No ruling has yet been made on D'Williams' motion to withdraw.
11Alive's Joe Ripley spoke to another defense attorney for a YSL client last week, Anatasios Manettas, who is representing Miles Farley. The lawyer noted the extended length of proceedings.
"It got started pretty quickly, as far as the pre-trial aspects," Manettas said. "But now this jury selection has now been the longest in Georgia history already, and I don't know if we're halfway done or not."
Manettas said hundreds of people have been questioned since January on any medical, financial or caretaker conflicts. The judge overseeing the trial said the current hardship phase could last through the summer.
"At that point, the individual phase will begin where each of the 14 defense teams and the state are allowed to ask the jurors who survived the hardship phase anything we want about any of their answers in the questionnaire, which has 258 questions," Manettas said. “None have been questioned about the questionnaire or their individual biases, exposure to the case in the media. It’s only been hardship so far. No one has been individually examined.”
Manettas said trial-specific questioning could begin a month later to try and narrow down a jury pool. Many law experts predict the trial itself could take months and will cost millions of dollars to conduct.