Try to keep up. The soap opera trial continued when, in July 2024, the trial judge recused herself, only hours after replacing the first trial judge, who met with prosecutors without telling the defense team.
Some time ago, Judge Rachel Krause, who heard recusal motions from Young Thug, removed Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville, who’d presided over the case in Atlanta for the past 18 months, from the case, and named Judge Shukura Ingram to helm the trial. In June, Young Thug’s attorney, Brian Steel, filed a motion to remove Glanville from the trial and “disqualify” the judge from taking any further action on the case, citing Glanville’s “secret” meeting with a witness and states’ attorneys.
Judge Krause said that she found nothing improper about Glanville’s meeting, but said she still ordered Glanville to be recused in order to preserve public trust.
About two hours later, Judge Ingram said she could not preside over the trial because, under her watch, a former Fulton County deputy was having an affair with one of the defendants in the case.
As Christian Eppinger was being severed from the case, deputies seized a laptop belonging to Eppinger’s attorney, Eric Johnson. Prosecutors alleged Eppinger used the computer to communicate with the deputy.
Delay in Criminal Cases
This saga presents so many issues we don’t know where to start. So, let’s start with the unusually long pretrial process in this case, which has already passed the two-year mark. This issue may be the most important one.
Alexander Pope is credited with the saying that justice delayed is justice denied. Obviously, Pope was not a criminal defense lawyer, because from a defense perspective, the opposite is true. Delay is often one of the best weapons for a Marietta criminal defense lawyer.
Delay usually doesn’t impact physical evidence. Exceptions include chain of custody issues and sample degradation. If prosecutors cannot account for every minute physical evidence was in law enforcement custody, a juror may have a reasonable doubt as to its authenticity. Furthermore, chemical samples often degrade over time. Usually, prosecutors can substitute the sample for a certificate. But that’s not the same.
Delay certainly won’t affect Young Thug’s rap lyrics, which may be the most controversial bit of evidence in this trial. More on that below.
Delay does impact testimonial evidence, but not in the way you might expect. Delay doesn’t affect witness recall, at least for the most part. Human memory doesn’t degrade evenly and slowly over time. Instead, most people forget about 90 percent of what they see and hear in forty-eight hours. They remember big things, like bank robberies. They forget small details, like the weather at the time of the bank robbery. When witnesses can’t recall details, they draw fuzzy pictures for jurors.
Witness availability is different. Most adults relocate eleven times. When people move, they often don’t leave forwarding addresses with county prosecutors. Prosecutors have investigators who can track down MIA witnesses, but except in major cases, they usually don’t bother doing so.
An investigation might not matter anyway. Usually, the court’s subpoena range is 100 or 150 miles from the courthouse front door. If a witness moves outside that range, prosecutors could ask the witness to voluntarily appear. But lots of luck with that.
Evidence in Criminal Trials
Prosecutors must establish guilt beyond any reasonable doubt, which is the highest burden of proof in Georgia law. Their evidence, as well as the evidence presented by a Marietta criminal defense lawyer, must pass two tests.
Admissible
Illegally obtained evidence is inadmissible. Fourth and Fifth Amendment violations are the most common infractions in this area.
The Fourth Amendment limits police search and seizure power. In pre-Revolutionary War days, this power was almost completely unchecked. So, the Founding Fathers added the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.
This provision bans all unreasonable searches without probable cause. So, the search must be reasonable, and courts narrowly define this word, or a judge must issue a warrant based on a probable cause affidavit.
Way back in the day, judges decided the difference between reasonable and unreasonable. Much later, mostly in the 1960s, the Supreme Court limited reasonable searches to a few instances, including:
- Owner Consent: Owners, or apparent owners (e.g. a driver who doesn’t legally own the car) may voluntarily consent to law enforcement searches. Courts allow some bullying, but eventually, officers cross the line. Incidentally, if an officer threatens to “get a warrant” if you don’t consent, that’s an empty threat. If the officer had probable cause for a warrant, s/he wouldn’t ask for consent.
- Plain View: When officers see drugs or other contraband in plain view, they don’t need a warrant to seize it. This exception only applies if the officers were lawfully in that place at that time. So, the exception doesn’t apply if the stop was illegal. If an officer sees part of a prohibited item in plain view, like a pistol grip, a Marietta criminal defense lawyer could challenge the legality of that search.
- Weapons Pat-Down: Constitutionally, officers may pat down suspects for weapons, if they reasonably suspect the suspect is involved in criminal activity. Basically, reasonable suspicion is an evidence-based hunch. The Supreme Court has watered down this weak rule even further. Nevertheless, many jurisdictions limit stop-and-frisk searches because they’re associated with racial profiling.
Other search warrant exceptions, which don’t arise very often, include limited search incident to an arrest, the automobile exception, and the “hot pursuit” exception.
Probable cause affidavits must cite reliable evidence. The uncorroborated testimony of a paid informant usually isn’t reliable evidence. Many people will say almost anything for love (leniency in another matter) or money (a cash payment).
Relevant
Evidence is relevant if it makes a material fact more or less probable. That’s pretty obvious. Hearsay and unduly prejudicial evidence are irrelevant as a matter of law.
Hearsay is an out-of-court statement admitted to show the truth of the matter asserted. “Paul told me that he killed Frank” is hearsay, if prosecutors use it to prove that Paul killed Frank. However, a number of hearsay exceptions apply.
The unduly prejudicial rule is at the heart of Young Thug’s rap lyrics, which may be the most compelling evidence at this trial. We won’t reprint the lyrics here, but most of them are violent words. Okay, we will reprint one, from Just How It Is: “Gave the lawyer close to two mil / He handles all the killings.”
Judges in other states, such as Louisiana and Maryland, have also allowed prosecutors to introduce rap lyrics in criminal trials.
In 2023, Jay-Z and other prominent artists publicly lent their support to New York Senate Bill S7527, which acknowledges rap as a form of artistic expression and limits the use of lyrics in criminal cases. As of July 2024, the State Senate had approved the bill, and it was scheduled for a vote in the State Assembly.
Young Thug’s trial may be the biggest trial in state history. For a free consultation with an experienced Marietta criminal defense lawyer, contact The Phillips Law Firm, LLC. The sooner you reach out to us, the sooner we start working for you.
