Young Thug’s RICO trial encountered another challenge on its third day, with the identification of jury members via a livestream. Judge Ural Glanville confirmed on Wednesday (Nov. 29) that four jurors were seen and revealed on social media, causing concern.
During the trial, media were instructed to stop filming Detective Mark Belknap’s face as he testified, though audio was permitted. The 18-year veteran of the Atlanta Police Department claimed that YSL was a hybrid street gang.
In the comment section of No Jumper’s repost, one user wrote, “I know that n**ga with the glasses on!!! That’s Dante; he is on the jury.” Another added, “Dante Wilson [is] punching the air right now.”
Court reporter Meghann Cuniff — who extensively covered Tory Lanez’s shooting case — also commented on the situation. She stated that the panelists could be replaced with alternates, and a mistrial is improbable. Her tweet read, “We could hear more about this if jurors whose faces were briefly shown start getting contacted and report it to the court. But outside jurors actually telling the judge they no longer feel they can be impartial because their faces were shown on TV, a mistrial is unlikely.”
The legal proceedings, which began on Monday (Nov. 27) after numerous delays and over a year since Thug’s arrest, have been tumultuous. Fulton County Chief Deputy District Attorney Adriane Love drew comparisons between YSL and a wolf pack from Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book in her opening statement. She claimed the alleged gang “dominated” the Cleveland Avenue community in Atlanta for over a decade.
Thug’s lawyer, Brian Steel, accused Love of burden shifting and moved for a mistrial. The request was denied, but Judge Glanville reprimanded the prosecutor’s team.
Steel also revealed the personal significance of the rapper’s stage name. He said, “It was his pact that if he could ever make it as a musical artist and help his family, himself, and many others out of this endless cycle of hopelessness, he would be Truly Humbled Under God. That’s what ‘Thug’ means.”