YOUNG THUG, A US RAPPER, WAS RELEASED AFTER PLEADING GUILTY IN STREET GANG CASE

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In a sudden turn of events, rapper Young Thug was released from custody on Thursday after entering a guilty plea to accusations of narcotics and gun offenses as well as involvement in a criminal organization. This was the longest trial in Georgia’s history.

In May 2022, 28 suspected street gang members were indicted on counts of racketeering and other offenses, including the 33-year-old Atlanta musician Jeffery Lamar Williams.

Prosecutors charged Young Thug with breaking state racketeering laws and claimed he was the head of YSL, or Young Slime Life, a gang affiliated with the Bloods.

The racketeering indictment listed murder, assault, carjacking, drug peddling, and theft as the underlying offenses.

The Grammy-winning rapper admitted guilt to six other counts, including those involving drugs and firearms, but entered a no-contest plea to accusations of racketeering and being the head of a violent street gang.

According to the New York Times, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker, who took over as the trial’s judge, sentenced him to time served and 15 years of probation.

According to an online listing of Fulton County jail records, Young Thug was freed on Thursday under his given name. According to the database listing, the charges were resolved as “time served” or “probation.”

Opening arguments for the case did not take place until November 27, 2023, although jury selection started in January of that year.

Prosecutors said during opening arguments that Young Thug was the boss of a criminal organization that used his musical company, YSL, as a front.

According to Adriane Love, the prosecutor for Fulton County, “the evidence will show that YSL checks all of the boxes for being a criminal street gang.”

Love recited lyrics from Young Thug’s song “Take It To Trial,” stating that the lyrics had “an uncanny similarity to very true, very real, and quite specific events,” as determined by the prosecution.
“We pursued the murder and discovered the lyrics, not the other way around,” she stated.

According to the defense, YSL is an acronym for Young Stoner Life Records, a hip-hop label that Young Thug established in 2016 and that, in their opinion, is more like a loose association of musicians than a gang.

Using the argument that “rap is the only fictional art form treated this way,” defense lawyers had attempted to have lyrics excluded from the evidence.

Young Thug, a rap pioneer vital to the Atlanta scene, is among the best-known and most unique individuals.