YNW Melly has lost his lawsuit in which he alleged that his constitutional rights are being violated as he remains behind bars while awaiting retrial in a double murder case. According to AllHipHop's Grouchy Greg Watkins, U.S. Magistrate Judge Melissa Damian dismissed the rapper’s habeas corpus petition on Tuesday. Melly originally filed the 12-page complaint back in November 2024.
In her ruling, Damian stated that Melly needs to exhaust all available state-level options before seeking help in federal court. Despite the result for Melly, he can refile, as Damian made her ruling “without prejudice."
As for Melly's initial lawsuit, he alleged that he was being kept in complete isolation and was unable to contact his legal team on several occasions. According to The Florida Courier, the complaint alleged that the conditions “shock the conscience and could not even be imagined ... even in a third-world country that has no guard rails protecting human decency and dignity.”
When Is YNW Melly's Retrial?
Melly has been behind bars since 2019, when authorities charged him with two counts of first-degree murder related to the deaths of YNW Juvy and YNW Sakchaser. He has pleaded not guilty. His first trial kicked off in 2023, but it ended in a mistrial. Jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict. For now, Melly will remain behind bars at Broward County Jail until his retrial begins in January 2027.
That retrial date was postponed from September 10, earlier this year. Throughout the process, Melly's family has voiced their support for him on social media. "Never missed a court date," his mother, Jamie Demons-King, captioned a picture of the family attending one of his hearings, earlier this year. "We stand behind you 100% @ynwmelly. I love you and God has you covered. Thank you @de.la.honey for the jacket." Melly originally achieved mainstream success with the release of his 2018 song, "Murder on My Mind."
