Does Elderly Man Charged In Michael K. Williams’ Death Deserve Lenience? ‘The Wire’ Creator Thinks So

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Losing the talented actor Michael K. Williams to a fatal drug overdose on September 6, 2021, was a loss to our community that’s still hard for fans to process. Whether a fan of his classic work on both HBO hit series The Wire and Lovecraft Country, or his recent VICELAND show Black Market — they hadn’t even begun airing its already-filmed second season prior to his death —  what was clear to all was that Williams still had way more stories to tell through his art. That’s why many felt a feeling of justice being served after the February 2022 arrest of four men connected to the sale of fentanyl that led to the 54-year-old actor’s premature death.

Irvin Cartagena, Hector Robles, Luis Cruz and 71-year-old Carlos Macci all pleaded guilty, with the latter specifically doing so on charges of agreeing to possess and distribute narcotics. However, in an interesting twist of fate, a former associate of Michael K. Williams in the form of The Wire creator David Simon went on record to actually ask for leniency for the elderly convict due to his age.

“No possible good can come from incarcerating a 71-year-old soul, largely illiterate, who has himself struggled with” addiction. The creator of the Wire sent a letter asking a judge for mercy for the man who sold fentanyl to Michael K. Williams. https://t.co/dmMDdm6ClO pic.twitter.com/jNKuAGszvN

— David Menschel (@davidminpdx) July 7, 2023

“What happened to Mike is a grievous tragedy,” Simon wrote in a statement included in a filing submitted by the defendant’s lawyer to Federal District Court Judge Ronnie Abrams, going on to add, “But I know that Michael would look upon the undone and desolate life of Mr. Macci and know two things with certainty: First, that it was Michael who bears the fuller responsibility for what happened.” Obtained by The New York Times, the rest of his plea reads, “And second, no possible good can come from incarcerating a 71-year-old soul, largely illiterate, who has himself struggled with a lifetime of addiction” and not selling drugs for profit but “rather as someone caught up in the diaspora of addiction himself.”

Macci has been in jail since his February 2022 arrest, and his lawyer Benjamin Zeman is asking the court to give his client a sentence of time served instead of the recommended 10 years.

Although Simon makes a good point about age being a factor in conviction, especially if life expectancy will run its course sooner than the sentence itself, many believe in the good ol’ saying that goes, “you do the crime, you do the time.” Just ask those who were vying for the arrest of Emmett Till accuser Carolyn Bryant Donham after she revealed in 2008 at the age of 74 that her infamous whistle-blowing accusation was a complete lie. She died earlier this year of old age at 88, but protests and even petitions were created demanding for her to be hauled off to jail.

Were those people valid in their decade-plus requests, or did even someone like Carolyn Bryant Donham deserve mercy as an elder to live out the last 14 years of her life in assumed peace?

Take a look below at what some are saying in regard to whether 71-year-old Carlos Macci deserves leniency for his part in the fatal overdose of Michael K. Williams, and let us know your thoughts as well.

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