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Rapper T.I. defends his special plea and sentencing deal

By Douglas A. Berman

Recently sentenced rapper T.I. is talking about his sentencing fate in ways that may add heat to the debate over whether he got special treatment.  This MTV story has some of the choice quotes from T.I.'s first post-sentencing interview: The sentencing judge called it "experimental." The U.S. attorney who helped broker the arrangement called it "unique."  And T.I. himself acknowledged that his plea deal ? which reduced a potential 10-year prison term into community service and, more than likely, less than a year's worth of jail time ? was "an opportunity." T.I. wasn't the recipient of the plea deal because he snitched, he's often said.  Nor did he get the benefit of the doubt from the legal system because he's rich.  Tip landed his plea deal due to a combination of his fame, his familiar troubled past and his ability to recount his transformation from trap star to rap star as a means of influencing at-risk youth...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 30, 2009 (boomark / email).