Protection legal professionals in the Younger Thug racketeering conspiracy trial filed an emergency petition Thursday asking Georgia’s Supreme Court docket to step in and pressure Fulton County Chief Decide Ural Glanville to let an “unbiased decide” determine whether or not he ought to step down from the high-profile case now underway in Atlanta.
Filed by legal professionals representing Younger Thug’s co-defendant and fellow rapper Yak Gotti, the 26-page petition claims Decide Glanville dedicated “judicial misconduct” and violated Yak Gotti’s constitutional proper to a good trial when he held a secret assembly with prosecutors and a key witness with out alerting the protection. The witness, Kenneth Copeland, had been sworn in for dwell testimony in entrance of the jury on Friday, June 7, however was taken into custody and spent the weekend in jail when Decide Glanville discovered him in contempt for refusing to reply questions after signing an immunity deal. The key assembly on the morning of Monday, June 10, led into Copeland’s return to the witness stand.
Of their submitting on Thursday, protection legal professionals Douglas Weinstein, Jay Abt, and Katie Hingerty argue that “troubling information” concerning the secret assembly “implicate” Decide Glanville in a joint effort to “coerce Copeland to testify.” They allege the decide and prosecutors engaged in an “effort to affix forces” to get Copeland again on the witness stand below risk of returning to jail “indefinitely.”
“The one logical conclusion for the key nature of the continuing was to present Glanville at the side of the State the unfettered capability to harass and intimidate the sworn witness into testifying,” the legal professionals argue within the movement. They go on to say protection legal professionals have a proper to the complete transcript of the assembly since Copeland could have mentioned issues that could possibly be used to undermine his credibility on cross-examination.
Copeland is a key witness within the case, as a result of he had entry to an Infiniti sedan that allegedly was rented by Younger Thug and was later linked to the 2015 homicide of Donovan “Nut” Thomas Jr. exterior a barbershop in Atlanta. Yak Gotti, whose authorized title is Deamonte Kendrick, is particularly charged with Thomas’ homicide alongside fellow defendant Shannon Stillwell. Younger Thug, whose authorized title is Jeffery Williams, was indicted on an overarching depend of racketeering conspiracy, with Thomas’ drive-by taking pictures demise as an overt act carried out in furtherance of the alleged gang conspiracy.
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Based on the petition filed Thursday, Kendrick’s legal professionals say they “realized” from an unidentified supply that Decide Glanville knowledgeable Copeland in the course of the secret assembly that he may maintain Copeland incarcerated till all 27 remaining defendants charged below the indictment conclude trial — not simply the six defendants at the moment going through jurors in what’s now the longest prison trial in Georgia state historical past.
The protection legal professionals additional declare they consider Copeland mentioned in the course of the secret assembly that he would “merely lie on the stand” if pressured to return and that he would testify he killed Thomas. The protection legal professionals say such statements quantity to essential materials they’ve a proper to make use of as protection proof. They go on to fault Decide Glanville for locating Williams’ protection lawyer Brian Metal in contempt when he confronted the courtroom concerning the secret assembly on June 10 and refused to disclose how he realized about it.
“It’s obvious that Glanville has made each effort to maintain the continuing a secret and inaccessible to protection counsel – going as far as to carry Metal in prison contempt for refusing to supply the title of our supply,” Weinstein and his co-counsel write. They argue {that a} keep of the proceedings and speedy reduction is critical “as a result of the witness that was coerced by Glanville is presently on the witness stand. Absent emergency reduction from this courtroom in some kind, Glanville will management the scope and substance of undersigned counsels’ cross examination of Copeland.”
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A spokesperson for the Fulton County Superior Court docket didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from Rolling Stone despatched Thursday. Prosecutors additionally didn’t reply to an electronic mail in search of touch upon the emergency petition. Decide Glanville beforehand denied three separate recusal motions filed in his courtroom, together with one from Kendrick’s legal professionals and one from Metal. He mentioned an appeals courtroom may take a look at his denials after the trial concludes.
Williams, Kendrick, and 4 others deny the fees towards them and are anticipated to be on trial by way of the tip of the yr. Prosecutors have already got referred to as greater than 70 witnesses within the ceaselessly delayed continuing, however that’s nonetheless not half of the names on their listing. Metal beforehand referred to as the case towards his consumer “unconscionable and unconstitutional.”