Faced with receiving stiff sentence to the hokey-pokey or turning his life around, T.I. chose well
Friday, March 27th, 2009
(SEE PHOTO GALLERY OF TODAY’S SENTENCING PRESS CONFERENCE)
A funny thing happened to Clifford “T.I.” Harris in the year leading up to the sentence hearing, held earlier today, on his federal firearms conviction: the 27-year-old Atlanta rapper turned his life around — and, apparently, a lot more lives in the process.
T.I. declared it so. His team of defense attorneys agreed. Even former Ambassador Andrew Young and Bishop Eddie Long said they recognized the change in him when they addressed the court on the defendant’s behalf.
But perhaps it was best acknowledged by U.S. District Judge Charles A. Pannell, Jr. when he told T.I., “I congratulate you on the work you’ve done so far. If you had failed I would’ve sent you to prison [and] I would’ve probably held Mr. Nahmias out the window of the 23rd floor.”
Everyone in the courtroom laughed at that, including David E. Nahmias, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. Without his belief that society could be better served by sticking T.I. with 1,500 hours of community service rather than the four to six years of fed time warranted by the crime, the mood in that courtroom — located on the 23rd floor of the Richard B. Russell Federal Building — would’ve been quite different today.
Wearing a three-piece suit, black shirt and tie today, Clifford “T.I.” Harris was sentenced to serve one year and one day in prison, as expected, after pleading guilty to federal firearms charges exactly one year ago.
