Hundreds more prospective jurors still to be called in Young Thug trial

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Jury selection will last through May in the massive gang-related trial of rapper Jeffery Williams, aka Young Thug.

According to a Feb. 23, 2023, order from Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville, 300 more jurors are being summoned on March 17, with 300 more to be called on April 28 and another 300 on May 19. These come in addition to the hundreds that have already been called in a trial that could easily become Georgia’s longest in history.

The summons call is part of the trial called voir dire, the process used by prosecutors and defenders to select a fair and impartial jury. During voir dire, the jury panel is questioned by both parties’ lawyers. The questions are intended to help the lawyers in the jury selection process. After voir dire, the jury is selected from the panel.

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Jury selection in Williams’ trial has already lasted longer than any other such process in Georgia history, outlasting jury selection in the Atlanta Public Schools cheating trial of 2015-16. That trial was also Georgia’s longest trial in history, lasting eight weeks.

Hundreds of potential jurors have requested exemptions from service for a variety of reasons: child care and elderly patent care obligations, medical reasons and professional hardship, among others.

Williams is facing eight criminal counts under a federal law that was originally enacted to fight organized crime.

The federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law was passed and signed into law in 1970 by President Richard Nixon. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, it allows prosecutors to link apparently unrelated crimes with a common objective into a prosecutable pattern of racketeering.

RICO also provides for more severe penalties and permits a defendant to be convicted and separately punished for the underlying crimes that constitute a racketeering pattern.

Georgia is one of 33 states that has its own RICO law, but in the Peach State, the alleged criminal enterprises do not have to have existed as long as the federal law.

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