T.I. Pleads guilty to federal firearms charges in Atlanta
T.I. entered a guilty plea today in the United States District Court to possessing machine guns and to the possession of firearms by a convicted felon. In an unprecedented plea deal, T.I.'s Atlanta criminal defense attorneys were able to negotiate a sentence of only one year in prison.
The binding plea agreement, which was accepted by District Court Judge Charles Pannell, allows T.I.'s sentencing to be deferred for up to a year. During this time, he will still be subject to home confinement although he will also be required to perform 1000 hours of community service for non-profit youth organizations.
If T.I. violates any of the conditions of his release or fails to perform all of the community service, he will then be subject to a sentence of up to 97 months in prison.
After the year in prison, he will be placed on supervised release for a period of three years, perform another 500 hours of community service, and pay a fine in the amount of $100,000.
Attached to the plea agreement were letters from the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, the NAACP, and the Catch Me Before I Fall Initiative expressing their interest in having T.I. serve as a spokesman for their campaigns against youth violence.
T.I. armed himself with with an arsenal of highly regarded Atlanta criminal defense attorneys who undoubtedly entered this case believing that he would have to go to trial in order to avoid years in prison.
Had T.I. gone to trial, he would have been facing upwards of 10 years in prison. It is unclear why the U.S. Attorney's Office was willing to agree to such a lenient sentence in this case since it has fought so vigorously over the past few years for much harsher punishment for lesser known defendants with similar charges.
What remains to be seen is whether this case will be an anomaly or whether it will encourage the government and defense lawyers to be more flexible in its prosecution of firearms offenses like this one where human lives were not put in danger. If not, the only message that the T.I. case may be sending is that only he gets a second chance.
The public radio affiliate in Atlanta interviewed Pate & Brody partner Page Pate about the deal. Page agrees with most criminal lawyers in Atlanta - the deal is very unusual and was only possible because of TI's celebrity.
