Fulton County DA discusses juggling several high-profile cases
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office is currently trying and investigating several high-profile cases.
Among those are the current trial of alleged criminal street gang Young Slime Life and rapper Young Thug, the election interference case and former President Donald Trump, the Tex McIver murder trial and rapper YFN Lucci.
Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Mark Winne sat down with Willis to discuss the challenges of having so many major cases.
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“You know, I asked for this responsibility. I prayed for it,” she said. “We work hard every day. I’m human and so, obviously, when people threaten my family, that is not something that I enjoy. But we take the proper security measures, and I’m not going to be intimidated for doing my job.”
She says she is pleased with the progress in the YSL RICO case against half a dozen defendants, including Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams.
Willis adds that the election interference case against former President Trump and more than a dozen others has proceeded more or less as expected.
“We did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong, everybody knows it,” the former president said after the indictment was unsealed.
She says in the retrial for Tex McIver, a prominent Georgia attorney accused of killing his wife, she greenlighted an appeal of a key ruling for the defense.
McIver maintains that the 2016 shooting of his wife was an accident.
The case focusing on YFN Lucci, whose real name is Rayshawn Bennett, begins early next month.
Two of Bennett’s attorneys, Drew Findling and Marissa Goldberg, say their client is a recording artist, not a criminal, and has never been associated with a gang.
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“It is absolutely a lot,” she admitted. “But we are prepared for the challenge. There are obviously different teams focused on each of those matters and all of the other criminal matters that this office is prosecuting. We’ve been well prepared. I have a theme here, and it’s if you stay ready, you ain’t got to get ready.”
She says that even the cases that don’t get major media attention are equally important to her office.
Defense attorney Manny Arora told Winne that he’s concerned about several of these cases, especially those with several defendants. He says those can put stress on the whole criminal justice system, especially for the poor.
“Delays are happening in a lot of cases. And if you’re out on bond, I can sort of live with it,” Arora said. “But if these people are in jail, I don’t think it’s right.”
Willis says the big cases are not impacting the others.
“[We] have a 93% conviction rate in this office,” she said. “Nothing is suffering. They have a DA that makes sure that everyone is here working, has the resources.”
One of Willis’ aides says that defense attorneys sometimes grumble about the time some cases take, but he says the DA’s office will often investigate cases even after police agencies have to make sure innocent people aren’t indicted.
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