Jury selection proves to be difficult for the YSL trial

Rapper and Grammy winner Young Thug, whose given name is Jeffery Williams, was charged last year in a sprawling indictment that accused him and more than two dozen others of conspiring to violate Georgia's anti-racketeering law. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

Jury selection is moving slowly in the Fulton County criminal case against Atlanta rapper Young Thug and what prosecutors say is a street gang called Young Slime Life. Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, is one of 14 defendants in the trial.

In the original indictment from May 2022, prosecutors allege that 28 people were involved in a conspiracy to violate Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, or RICO law. The indictment included 54 other charges and detailed 182 acts that prosecutors say YSL committed.

Prosecutors accuse Young Thug of co-founding the YSL gang and identify him as its leader. Young Thug has a popular music label with the same initials, Young Stoner Life, that some of the accused are affiliated with.