Young Thug is trying to get his freedom back after his explosive YSL RICO trial took up the national headlines all through 2024. Just months after agreeing to a somewhat nerve-racking plea deal, Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, is now begging the Fulton County Superior Court to reconsider the agreement sealed through sentencing.
In October 2024, however, Thug admitted his role in the extortion scheme in a plea deal that allowed him to avoid serving more prison time beyond what he’d already been through while awaiting trial. The agreement provided a 40-year term, with five years to be served in prison, although that portion was effectively fulfilled through credit for time served. Yet the conditions of his parole are proving more restraining than most people had expected.
Under the terms of his deal, Thug is barred from returning to Atlanta, except under a list of minimal exceptions, including family emergencies. He also must undergo random drug testing, strict geographical restrictions, and continuous legal monitoring. For an artist whose personal and professional life is so intimately connected with the city that founded his career, these limitations on where he is allowed to go and when, however one chooses to look at it, it’s better than a prison cell have weighed heavily.
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According to The Neighborhood Talk, Thug petitioned for a court date within a year of the sentencing date to request a sentence modification through his legal team, Brian Steel. In the motion, Steel asked that the court hold a hearing and consider changes that could alleviate the conditions of the rapper’s release. “Mr. Williams respectfully requests a hearing on this Motion and at the conclusion of same, asks this Honorable Court to grant the above-requested relief and modify Mr. Williams’ sentence.”
And while the motion doesn’t specify what particular terms Thug would like to change, the request at least indicates he’s looking to soften the hold that stipulation holds over his sentence, whether that’s to escape from “the city,” Atlanta, or to regain freedom from court-ordered supervision within a certain radius. The initial charges in the RICO case were all-encompassing. In addition to the core racketeering charges, Thug was accused of counts involving marijuana, cocaine, codeine, firearms, and in one instance, a machine gun. The plea deal spared him additional jail time on those charges, but their repercussions continue to overshadow his daily existence. It’s anyone’s guess at this point whether the court will approve Young Thug’s motion. Even with the trial behind him, the struggle for liberty is far from finished.
