Judge Ural Glanville called an emergency sidebar late on Wednesday afternoon after a popular social media page posted a still photo of some members of the jury in Young Thug’s trial, leading to members of the public identifying them.
Judge Glanville has been very careful in his instructions to jury members not to read the news or participate in any discussion of the trial, including watching the news and social media. The judge has also taken steps to ensure that the jury is sequestered as appropriate when it is required and even allowed the media to film inside of the courtroom but only film the witnesses.
It seems that the media filmed a video of part of the proceedings, and No Jumper cropped and posted the still photo. There are reports that some members of the jury have been identified.
Judge Glanville has reportedly raised concerns about the exposure of the jury members, and the prosecution reportedly raised that the jury could be open to tampering by unscrupulous persons.
According to Law & Crime’s Cathy Russon, Judge Glanville was “very angry” and called the attorneys to his chambers. She said there were “murmurs about a mistrial.”
In the meantime, there will be no mistrial, but Judge Glanville said filming in the court won’t be allowed because of security concerns. Only audio recordings can be made.
“Due to some security issues…we have had an inadvertent recording of our jurors on, would it be appropriate if you all will not film,” the judge asked the media members for their cooperation.
Strange response from Judge Glanville after the in-chambers meeting with counsel. He came out and said that it was no one's fault, but jurors' faces were inadvertently shown earlier in the morning and asked the media if we were okay with not showing the detective's face.,. 1/2
— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) November 30, 2023
For the record (because I've had so many comments), it was not Law&Crime's camera in the #YSL courtroom today. We had no control over anything that was shown. We took our stream down as soon as we were alerted that some jurors were inadvertently shown.
— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) November 30, 2023
According to journalist Meghann Cuniff, at the point No Jumper posted the still shot, people on social media were already trying to identify the jurors.
One of the major reasons that bail has been denied for the defendants in the case is the potential intimidation of the witnesses and possibly the jury.
