News: Sentencing for Crime Boss in Brooklyn
(Long Island, N.Y.) The boss of a major crime family has left his fate to jurors in a Brooklyn Federal Court. The jury is set to determine whether or not he will receive the death penalty or live the rest of his life in prison. He is currently serving a life sentence for the conviction of other crimes.
If sentenced again to life, reports stated that he would be sent to a Supermax top-security prison in a remote area of Colorado. The facility has inmates locked up twenty-three hours a day and allegedly even has its staff change light bulbs without entering. The crime boss would not have any chance of coming out and would be spending life in a place feared by even the hardest of cons.
In pushing for the death penalty, the prosecution has argued that the crime boss still poses a danger to others even while behind bars. They have claimed that the mob boss spent a thirty-year-long career in crime and had given multiple orders of murder. They have also claimed that prison won’t keep him from his mobster ties or from giving orders to his crime family subordinates.
Reports stated that he has been active in his defense and has gone through lengths to look more presentable to the jury. One source revealed that he borrowed a tie from the judge, carried documents to the proceedings, took notes, and often consulted with his lawyer throughout the trial. He allegedly shook his head while being accused of plotting the murder of women.
The crime boss is currently serving life in prison without parole for a 2007 conviction. Some reports stated that the case against him has already cost tax payers three million dollars and that the death penalty aspect of the trial could take weeks. This makes followers of the case consider the costs of further court proceedings compared with the expenses in adhering to the sentence of life in prison.
According to reports, it has been more than fifty years since a federal defendant was executed in New York State, and a comparable amount of time since a state case led to an execution. In order for the crime boss to receive the death penalty, the seven men and five women of the jury must return a unanimous decision. New York State has been historically tentative about the death penalty since the federal death sentence was reinstated in 1988.
In 1954 a man was put to death for the murder of an FBI agent. In recent years, a man was given the death penalty after being accused of killing a Staten Island policeman in 2003. The death sentence, in that case, was later reversed and the man was kept in a federal jail in Brooklyn with a retrial for the death penalty pending.
It’s been thirty years since a gangster has faced the death penalty for a gang-related murder. The mobster the crime boss was convicted of ordering killed was gunned down in Brooklyn in 2004. During this time, the mob boss was in prison for previous crimes.
The prosecution has argued that orders were given to kill before the crime boss was put behind bars, while the defense has claimed that the victim was not blameless and that others responsible for the hit have not faced the death penalty.
