Courts

The YSL RICO Trial Is Finally Done With!

It's a Halloween miracle!

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lawyers jumping for joyThe longest criminal trial in Georgia’s history has finally come to a close. Jeffrey Williams, known to most as Young Thug, made a non-negotiated plea in his RICO case. After Williams’s lawyers and the goofballs who built a weak case on rap lyrics and several hostile witnesses couldn’t come to an agreement on what his sentencing should be, the decision was given to Judge Whitaker to decide. NBC News has coverage:

Whitaker sentenced him to 40 years that would have forced him to serve five years in prison, but she commuted it to time served. In addition, he must complete 15 years of probation, which can result in 20 years to be served in custody if probation is not successful.

She put several restrictions on him, including barring travel in metro Atlanta and no contact with affiliated gang members, and said he must perform community service, including doing presentations to community groups and children against gang violence.

There are a couple of caveats to the no contact rule — Thugger can still keep in touch with his brother and recording artist Gunna. Thank God for the latter; whatever album comes after this extended sham of a trial will be highly anticipated. It will also be highly scrutinized. Not just by Love’s office hoping that they can get a second bite by accusing his lyrics of having gang ties, but also by his fans. Jeffrey is a versatile musician, but it is unclear how drastically the content of his art will have to change to keep in line with his parole conditions and his promise to be more careful with the content he puts out in the world.

There is a lot to process here.  Fifteen years of probation is a hell of a sword over your head, but it is worlds better than the 25 years in prison and 20 years of probation the prosecution wanted. But bracketing that for the moment, so much happened over the last two and a half years. After Jeffrey sees his family and Brian Steel gets his flowers, we’re going to have to talk about all of the stripper chicken, mid-court drug deals, and shitty lyrical hermeneutics that went down here. It was so bad. At one point, the state tried to pin murderous intent on Jeffrey over Nicki Minaj’s lyrics!

Thankfully, this saga is over. Keep your nose clean, Mr. Thugger. Just don’t wipe it in public for the next 15 years.

Earlier: Desperate For Evidence, Prosecutors Will Use Young Thug Lyrics In Trial

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Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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