A potential juror in the Young Thug YSL case dodged jail time for skipping out on a day of jury selection. Instead, the judge ordered her to write a 30-page essay on the importance of jury duty.
In today’s hearing, the judge spoke to one of the jurors who was said to be missing earlier this week. Court officials later found out that she flew out of the Dominican Republic over the weekend. At this point, the judge ordered for authorities to wait for her at the airport and bring her directly to court.
Today, the judge found her in contempt of court. However, he provided an alternative solution to the 20-day sentence attached to the offense or a $1K fine. The potential juror will now have to draft a 30-page essay detailing the history and significance of jury duty.
The judge laid down rigid criteria for the paper, including AP-style writing, 10 primary sources, and 10 secondary sources.
“You’re going to write a minimum — the history of jury service, who could not serve on a jury because that’s very important. Because years ago, people that looked like us couldn’t serve on juries. It was prohibited,” the judge said. “I want you to talk about jury service in Georgia and discrimination, at minimum. Those four things.”
The judge allowed the juror to add further context to the essay itself but they would have to provide information on the topics he mentioned.
The potential juror in the YSL case has three weeks to write and submit the paper electronically. From there, the court will scan the paper for plagiarism. “You’re going to have to write it yourself and then you’re going to come and talk to me about it. I think that’s fair under the circumstances because this is that important,” he added.
“The attention is how serious we view this aspect of jury service and participation of process,” he continued, apologizing for the media attention surrounding the situation.
Check out the full clip below.