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The Young Thug RICO trial is finally underway after months of delays, but that hasn’t put an end to the pattern of disruptions that caused those delays in the first place. The latest interruption to the proceedings came yesterday (November 29), when Judge Ural Glanville was forced to ask media members in attendance not to record video after one of their social media posts captured members of the jury.
Although, the videos in question only displayed the jurors for seconds at most, social media lit up with reports that jurors were being identified online — which could have disastrous impacts on the trial. Accounts such as No Jumper reportedly wrote headlines like “Fans on Social Media Are Already Identifying Jury Members in Young Thug’s Trial After Cameras Accidentally Revealed Their Faces,” which raised concerns of jurors’ safety and the potential for a mistrial (which would only see Thug locked up for even longer as new jurors were selected for a retrial).
This after sites like @NoJumper posted video that shows some of the jurors and wrote, “Fans on Social Media Are Already Identifying Jury Members in Young Thug’s Trial After Cameras Accidentally Revealed Their Faces.”
The 30-minute old post already has 4,300 likes. https://t.co/1wv0E4szoj
— Meghann Cuniff (@meghanncuniff) November 29, 2023
“Trial just hit another speed bump” pic.twitter.com/8JTEwhQDRe
— Meghann Cuniff (@meghanncuniff) November 29, 2023
Judge Glanville cites security issues and the “inadvertent recording” of the jurors then asks if media would be “willing” to no longer film Detective Belknap’s testimony. It’ll be audio only.
So, no mistrial. Testimony resumes. pic.twitter.com/0tpJVOzWqZ
— Meghann Cuniff (@meghanncuniff) November 29, 2023
While there are alternate jurors for such cases, it’s still yet another incident of confusion for a trial that already faces major scrutiny over its questionable use of the defendant’s art as evidence.
Young Thug is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
