A call for leniency for one of the four men convicted in the fatal fentanyl poisoning of The Wire star Michael K. Williams has come from an unlikely place: the celebrated cop drama’s creator, David Simon.
The 54-year-old actor, who battled addiction issues, died in 2021 from an overdose of fentanyl-laced heroin.
According to The New York Times, Simon sent a three-page letter to Federal District Court Judge Ronnie Abrams, asking for a lighter sentence for 71-year-old Carlos Macci.
New York police also arrested Hector Robles, Luis Cruz and Irving Cartagena in connection to Williams’ death; the men were all convicted on narcotics conspiracy charges, with the latter man reportedly caught on camera selling Williams the fatal dose outside his Brooklyn, New York, apartment.
According to the Times, Macci’s attorney Benjamin Zeman reached out to Simon to ask him to speak on behalf of Macci, who is reportedly facing a decade behind bars, because Simon is “such a thoughtful and eloquent voice about what the failure of the war on drugs has wrought.”
In his letter to the judge ahead of Macci’s sentencing, Simon reportedly wrote, “What happened to Mike is a grievous tragedy. But I know that Michael would look upon the undone and desolate life of Mr. Macci and know … that it was Michael who bears the fuller responsibility for what happened.”
Simon added of Macci, “No possible good can come from incarcerating a 71-year-old soul, largely illiterate, who has himself struggled with a lifetime of addiction,” maintaining he sold drugs not for profit, “but rather as someone caught up in the diaspora of addiction himself.”
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