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Artist News Legal
Judge declines to postpone Young Thug and Gunna’s trial in Georgia
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 18 November 2022
A judge in the US state of Georgia has refused to delay the ongoing criminal case against rappers Young Thug and Gunna, which means jury selection will begin in early January as originally planned.
Young Thug and Gunna were among 28 people arrested back in May accused of involvement in a gang that allegedly committed murders, shootings and carjackings. They have been incarcerated ever since despite multiple attempts to get both rappers bail.
It was the prosecution that sought to postpone the trial in this case so that it would begin in late March next year rather than early January. Prosecutors said they needed more time because some of the 28 defendants still lacked court-appointed attorneys.
However, there are plenty of defence lawyers already involved in these proceedings and they – including reps for the two rappers – opposed the planned postponement, given that their clients remain in jail while they await trial. And the judge overseeing the case, Ural Glanville, sided with the defence attorneys, refusing to delay trial and confirming that jury selection will begin on 5 Jan.
The prosecution of Young Thug and Gunna has, of course, very much put the spotlight on the campaign to stop US prosecutors using a defendant’s creative output as evidence against them in court.
Prosecutors in Georgia plan to use music and videos released by Young Thug and Gunna as evidence. Critics argue that this is a common practice when rappers are accused of crimes in the US, but such evidence is often very misleading, and its use in criminal actions usually breaches the free speech rights of the accused.
New laws in California now restrict the use of creative output as evidence in this way and the music industry is campaigning for similar restrictions to be applied to courts across the US.
