亚特兰大说唱歌手Young Thug的法定姓名是Jeffrey Lamar Williams，他已经接受了认罪协议，改变了对乔治亚州富尔顿县帮派相关指控的认罪态度。
威廉姆斯周四下午在法庭上认罪。
他被判服刑和15年缓刑，预计将于周四在软禁中获释。
"你决定放弃这些权利并认罪是因为你确实有罪吗?"富尔顿县高等法院法官佩奇·里斯·惠特克问道。
“是的，”在他的律师就其中一项罪名插话之前，威廉姆斯说。
据美国广播公司亚特兰大分公司称，WSB电视台周四在法庭上，这位说唱歌手的认罪协议是不可谈判的，这意味着量刑的最终决定取决于法官。
他对两项指控提出抗辩，包括违反RICO法案，这是一项不抗辩或不辩护的抗辩，意味着被告既不承认也不否认对他们的指控，WSB电视台据报告的.
听证会后，威廉姆斯的律师布莱恩·斯蒂尔、他的合作律师和威廉姆斯的父亲在法庭外发表了讲话。斯蒂尔说，这不是他想要的判决，但“这是对杰弗里·威廉姆斯的正义，他和我们一样高兴，我很感激。”
老杰弗里·威廉姆斯也谈到了他儿子的认罪协议，他说:“他要回家了，我感觉很好，但同时，我仍然希望他继续战斗，但那是他的决定。那是他的决定。你知道吗?”
威廉姆斯最初于2022年5月10日受到指控，其中一项罪名是阴谋违反该州的《诈骗影响和腐败组织法》(RICO)和参与街头帮派犯罪活动，后来又被指控参与街头帮派活动，三项罪名是违反《佐治亚州受管制物质法》(Georgia controlled substances act)，犯下重罪时持有枪支和持有机关枪。
在达成认罪协议之前，威廉姆斯表示无罪，他的律师一再告诉ABC新闻，他的当事人是无辜的。
敲诈勒索案始于2023年11月，是佐治亚州迄今为止持续时间最长的审判。在整个审判过程中，检察官指控这位获得格莱美奖的说唱歌手是佐治亚州富尔顿县一个所谓的街头犯罪团伙的联合创始人和“宣称的领导人”，该团伙被称为“年轻的粘液生命”或“YSL”
富尔顿县副地方检察官阿德里安·洛夫在开庭陈述中声称:“YSL的成员和同伙像杰弗里·威廉姆斯为首的团伙一样行动。”
洛夫声称，被指控的YSL成员犯下了“街头犯罪团伙活动——这些罪行旨在推进YSL本身的目标和指令。”
“10年来，这个自称为年轻粘液生命的团体统治了富尔顿县的克利夫兰大街社区，”洛夫在周一说。“并在富尔顿县克利夫兰大街社区中间制造了一个大坑，吞噬了他的青春、纯真，甚至一些最年轻成员的生命。”
这位格莱美获奖说唱歌手于2022年5月在佐治亚州富尔顿县被指控犯有全面的RICO罪。他是被指控的28个人之一，但在许多被起诉者接受认罪协议后，他与五名共同被告一起受审，而法官裁定其他人将单独受审。
这位说唱歌手的明星影响力引起了全国范围内对本案的关注，检察官对他的歌词以及他的一些被告表演的歌词的有争议的使用，因为本案中据称的证据进一步将它推向了全国的聚光灯下。
歌词的使用引发了言论自由倡导者以及嘻哈界知名音乐家和制作人的愤怒，他们认为说唱音乐和写作过程是一种艺术表达形式，不一定是现实的反映。
检察官在起诉书中称，包括Young Thug在内的几名被告发布的社交媒体帖子、图像和各种歌词，是“推动阴谋的公开行为”，违反了RICO法案。
虽然起诉的范围远远超出了说唱歌词的使用，但歌词的加入引发了整个音乐行业艺术家的愤怒，并帮助引发了一场后来被称为“保护黑人艺术”的运动
斯蒂尔在2022年12月提交了一份动议，要求乌拉尔·格兰维尔法官停止检察官使用歌词作为证据。在与一名证人和检察官会面后，乌拉尔·格兰维尔法官被调离此案。
斯蒂尔认为，“[歌词]如果仅仅与音乐/表达自由/言论自由/诗歌有关，就不能作为犯罪的证据。”
格兰维尔在2022年11月的一项裁决中否认了这项动议，他决定起诉书中提到的17组歌词可以在审判中初步接受。
格兰维尔说:“我有条件地承认那些悬而未决的歌词，这取决于或受制于州政府或寻求承认证据的支持者所奠定的基础。”
Rapper Young Thug to be released on house arrest for time served as part of plea deal in Georgia RICO case
Atlanta Rapper Young Thug, whose legal name is Jeffrey Lamar Williams, has accepted a plea deal, changing his plea to guilty on gang-related charges in Fulton County, Georgia.
Williams pleaded guilty in court on Thursday afternoon.
He was sentenced to time served and 15 years of probation and is expected to be released on house arrest Thursday.
"Is it your decision to waive these rights and enter a guilty plea because you are in fact guilty?" Superior Court of Fulton County Judge Paige Reese Whitaker asked.
"Yes," Williams said before his attorney interjected on one of the counts.
According to an ABC affiliate in Atlanta,WSB-TV, which was in the courtroom on Thursday, the rapper's plea deal is non-negotiated, which means the final decision on sentencing is up to the judge.
He pleaded nolo contendere to two charges, including violation of the RICO act, which is a plea of no contest or no defense, meaning the defendant neither admits nor denies the charges against them, WSB-TVreported.
Williams' attorney Brian Steel, his co-counsel and Williams' father spoke outside of the courthouse after the hearing. Steel said that this was not the verdict he had wanted but that "it is justice for Jeffrey Williams, and he is delighted as are we, I'm thankful."
Jeffrey Williams Sr. also addressed his son's plea deal, saying, "I feel great that he's going home, but at the same token, I still wanted him to fight but that's his decision. That's his decision. You know?"
Williams was initially charged on May 10, 2022, with one count each of conspiring to violate the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and participating in criminal street gang activity, and was later charged with an additional count of participating in street gang activity, three counts of violating the Georgia controlled substances act, possession of a firearm while committing a felony and possession of a machine gun.
Before the plea deal was struck, Williams had pled not guilty and his attorney had repeatedly told ABC News that his client was innocent of all charges.
Throughout the racketeering trial, which began in November 2023 and has been the longest-running trial in Georgia so far, prosecutors alleged that the Grammy-winning rapper is a co-founder and "proclaimed leader" of an alleged criminal street gang in Fulton County, Georgia, known as "Young Slime Life" or "YSL."
"The members and associates of YSL they moved like a pack with Jeffrey Williams as its head," Fulton County Deputy District Attorney Adriane Love alleged during opening statements.
Love claimed that the alleged members of YSL committed "criminal street gang activity -- that is crimes that were intended to further the purpose and advance the directives of YSL itself."
"For 10 years and counting, the group calling itself Young Slime Life dominated the Cleveland Avenue community of Fulton County," Love said on Monday. "And created a crater in the middle of Fulton County's Cleveland Avenue community, that sucked in the youth, the innocence and even the lives of some of his youngest members."
The Grammy-winning rapper was charged in May 2022 in a sweeping RICO indictment in Fulton County, Georgia. He was among 28 individuals charged but stood trial with five co-defendants after many of those indicted took plea deals, while the judge ruled that others will be tried separately.
The rapper's star power drew nationwide attention to this case and the prosecutor's controversial use of his lyrics, as well as lyrics performed by some of his defendants, as alleged evidence in this case further propelled it to the national spotlight.
The use of lyrics sparked outrage from freedom of speech advocates and prominent musicians and producers in the hip-hop world, who argued that rap music and the writing process is a form of artistic expression and not necessarily a reflection of reality.
Prosecutors argued in the indictment that social media postings, images and various song lyrics released by several defendants, including Young Thug, are "overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy" to violate the RICO Act.
Although the scope of the indictment went far beyond the use of rap lyrics, the inclusion of lyrics prompted outrage from artists across the music industry and helped spark a movement that came to be known as "Protect Black Art."
Steel filed a motion in December 2022 asking Judge Ural Glanville, who was removed from the case after meeting with a witness and prosecutors, to stop prosecutors from using lyrics as evidence.
Steel argued that "[Lyrics] cannot be used as evidence of crime if they are simply connected to music/freedom of expression/freedom of speech/poetry."
Glanville denied the motion in a November 2022 ruling, where he determined that 17 sets of lyrics mentioned in the indictment could be preliminarily admitted in the trial.
"I'm conditionally admitting those pending lyrics, depending upon – or subject to a foundation that is properly laid by the state or the proponent that seeks to admit that evidence," Glanville said.
