More than two years since the arrest of star Atlanta rapper Young Thug on racketeering, gang conspiracy and weapons charges, his trial alongside five co-defendants is already the longest in Georgia's history. And it is nowhere near finished.
On Monday, some 19 months after the start of jury selection and nine months following opening statements, the jury will return to the courtroom to hear testimony for the first time since June 17.
They will do so in a changed landscape: Judge Ural Glanville, who had been presiding over the case since the start, was instructed to step down last month and was replaced by Judge Paige Reese Whitaker following a series of heated back-and-forths and motions from the defense about the handling of an uncooperative witness for the prosecution.
About 75 witnesses have testified so far, and prosecutors have told Whitaker that they plan to call some 105 more; estimates backed by the new judge predict the trial will likely last through the first quarter of 2025.
But the appointment of Whitaker -- actually the case's third judge, because of another typically dramatic twist -- is in some ways a fresh start, as she attempts to put a runaway train of a trial back on track.
"This has been a long-running and multifaceted proceeding," Whitaker wrote in one of many decisions she had to make before the case could resume. "Challenges have been myriad and formidable. Frustrations may have been mounting while fortitude was waning."
However, she insisted, denying defense motions to declare a mistrial or remove the prosecutors, all sides would need to redouble their professionalism as they forge ahead. Here's where things stand after the unexpected eight-week delay.
The Problem Witness
The case will pick up, in a sense, where it left off: with the attempted questioning of Kenneth Copeland, an important witness for the prosecution.
Young Thug, born Jeffery Williams, stands accused of leading a criminal street gang known as YSL, or Young Slime Life. Prosecutors say the rapper bankrolled and commanded a South Atlanta crew that is responsible for murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, witness intimidation and drug dealing.
Copeland, a longtime associate of Williams who was not charged in the case, was expected to testify to the formation and structure of the alleged gang, as well as about the specifics of a killing at the center of the prosecution's narrative -- the 2015 shooting of Donovan Thomas, known as Nut, a rival gang member.
But when he took the stand in June, Copeland -- whose own police interrogation had been leaked online before the trial began, leading to him being branded a "snitch" -- demurred when asked simple questions, signaling his intention to make things difficult. After he attempted to plead the Fifth Amendment, despite having already been granted immunity, prosecutors and Glanville met with Copeland and his lawyer to discuss his testimony.
The handling of that private meeting -- and a similar gathering that had occurred days earlier -- sent the trial into a tailspin.
Lawyers for the defendants called the arrangement "clearly illegal and improper," arguing that Copeland was being coerced into testifying under the threat of jail time. Eventually, while the meetings were deemed mostly acceptable, Glanville was forced to recuse himself, in order to preserve "the public's confidence in the judicial system."
Because of the complications, the new judge has ruled that Copeland must redo his entire testimony and that anything that occurred after the defense motioned for Glanville's removal, on June 12, would be struck from the record and invalidated.
But Whitaker acknowledged that if too many of the 12 jurors and four alternates said they could not fully disregard the evidence already presented, "then we might have a mistrial."
Asked last week if he planned to cooperate on the stand this time, Copeland told the judge it would depend "on how I wake up."
New Judge, New Rules
Whitaker technically took over the case not from Glanville but from an in-between judge in Fulton County, Georgia, Shukura Ingram. Ingram had overseen the case for only two days last month when she, too, recused herself, citing the "appearance of impropriety," because her courthouse deputy had previously been arrested for maintaining a romantic relationship with a co-defendant in the YSL case.
The soap opera twist was one of many that has plagued the trial since its start. Already sprawling because it originally included 28 defendants -- whittled down to six, including Williams, for these proceedings -- the case has seen constant delays and disruptions, like the stabbing of one defendant in jail, leading to tension on all sides.
"This 'trial' is not fit for a kangaroo," Brian Steel, a lawyer for Williams who was held in contempt by Glanville, wrote in one filing.
Whitaker has said she will run her courtroom on a tighter schedule -- "when I say 8:45 am, I mean 8:45 am," she said -- and spent the last few weeks ironing out an array of issues, including the handling of witnesses and evidence, between the two sides.
"It definitely has appeared that there have been times that tempers have flared a whole lot and people have been less than professional," the new judge said. "I would like for us to maintain a degree of decorum, dignity and professionalism."
Staying the Course
Since Whitaker's appointment, the defense has asked repeatedly for her to declare a mistrial, citing concerns over the disclosure and admission of evidence; the secret meetings with Copeland; and the treatment of the defense lawyers by the previous judge.
Douglas S. Weinstein, a lawyer for one defendant, accused Glanville and the prosecutors of gossiping "like yentas" about the defense lawyers, showing their bias.
"This case is like an old house that the present Honorable Judge is tasked with renovating," he wrote. "Every time a piece of pasted-up wallpaper is removed more rot is found hidden underneath. No herculean effort by the present Court can fix the Due Process violations of the last Judge. This house must be torn down." (Another defense lawyer argued that a mistrial should only be called if it barred the prosecution from bringing the case again, noting plainly, "the Defense is winning.")
Whitaker denied the motion for a mistrial Thursday. But while she also continued to deny bond for the YSL defendants who remain in jail, including Williams, as well as defense motions to disqualify the prosecutors, she did acknowledge missteps by the lawyers in the office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. (Former President Donald Trump, who is also facing racketeering charges brought by Willis, stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, said during a livestreamed interview last week that he had heard Williams "is being treated very unfair by her.")
Lawyers for the defendants zeroed in on comments made by Copeland during his private meetings with the previous judge, in which he said, "I have never been truthful a day in my life until I just made this statement right now." The defense argued that not informing them of this statement amounted to a violation of the Brady rule, which requires the disclosure of potentially exculpatory evidence.
Whitaker, in her ruling on the issue, wrote: "Copeland may have little credibility. He may speak in hyperbole. But the fact remains that for a defense attorney, this nugget by a key State's witness is gold."
But she concluded that because the comments were "revealed during the course of trial and in time for the defense to utilize it," it did not technically amount to a Brady violation that could lead to a mistrial, calling it a negligent oversight rather than a "purposeful violation."
Still, she added, "the fact that a violation of a defendant's Constitutional rights has been averted does not, under these circumstances, provide cause for celebration." And she called for an unorthodox remedy: The "entire prosecution team," she wrote, would be required to watch a training video on the Brady rule "and other professional obligations of a prosecutor."