A tour of the ATL: T.I heading for the car flanked by bodyguards at the Federal courthouse. You can see the CNN World HQ with the red logo on the left background. Once used to be my office in there. You are looking at Atlanta's beautiful skyline. The Olympic bombing happened at the park right behind the CNN building.
Thanks to Bill Rankin and Frank Neimeir of the AJC at the press conference and court hearing aftermath! Atlanta rapper T.I. used the fame he gained glorifying violence in his music to cut a deal Thursday that keeps him out of federal prison in the coming year and on the road preaching nonviolence to kids. T.I., whose real name in Clifford Harris Jr., faced a minimum of 4 years 9 months behind bars after he was caught last fall buying machine guns and silencers in an undercover sting.
But if Harris abides by his extraordinary plea agreement, he will spend less than a year in prison. Before he surrenders to begin serving time, he must perform at least 1,000 hours of community service telling kids about the pitfalls of crime, drugs and gangs and encouraging them to respect the law. The details of Harris' plea deal were outlined Thursday during an hour long hearing in which he pleaded guilty to two charges of illegally possessing firearms and another for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.
One of the world's best-known rap artists, Harris was arrested Oct. 13, just hours before he was to receive two awards at the BET Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta. Harris, 27, wearing a gray sharkskin suit, was smiling as he walked up to a bank of microphones outside the federal courthouse after his plea. He vowed to dedicate himself to changing the lives of young people.
"I'm not looking forward to being incarcerated," Harris said. "I have a long road of redemption to travel. ... I realize completely I violated the law, and I take it very seriously." U.S. District Court Judge Charles Pannell Jr. scheduled Harris' sentencing for March 27, 2009. If the musician abides by the conditions of his plea agreement, Pannell is bound to impose a prison sentence of one year plus one day.
He is expected to serve less than a year, however. Because of a quirk in Bureau of Prisons rules, inmates get credit for good behavior — and can carve off 15 percent of their incarcerations — only if they are sentenced to more than a year. The agreement also says that if Harris does not abide by the conditions in his plea and no longer accepts responsibility for his actions, Pannell can slam him with a sentence of more than 8 years in prison. Harris also was fined $100,000 and sentenced to a year's home confinement. He has been out on $3 million bond, and he will get credit for time spent in home confinement since late October and any time he spends at home in the coming year.
BTW, that's Rashan Ali of Hot 107.9FM T.I is hugging. She's a morning show host, Hot is one of Atlanta's 3 hip-hop stations. "He can perform, act in movies [and] carry on with his business until the end of the 12-month period," said Ed Garland, one of Harris' six attorneys. FYI, Ed Garland is one powerful old white man Atlanta Attorney. God forbid if I need him I would have to take a million dollar bank loan! All the while, a private security officer will shadow Harris and report on him if he strays. Carl Lietz, an Atlanta lawyer and former federal defender, expressed astonishment at the agreement. "That is an outstanding deal, given what he was facing," Lietz said. "This is a very unusual, and in my experience, unprecedented way to resolve a case involving these allegations." Sandra has how the whole Grand Hustle family was so thrilled here.
U.S. Attorney David Nahmias defended the deal, saying preventing crime is a paramount objective. "If Mr. Harris performs as expected, his efforts and ability to reach and influence a large number of young people should prevent and deter at least some of them from committing crimes that endanger their communities and ruin their lives," Nahmias said. Steve Sadow, another one of Harris' attorneys, called the agreement "fair and reasonable. ... T.I. knows he's getting a second chance here, and he's going to make the most of it."
Since 1997, Harris has had a string of run-ins with the law that placed him in jail or under arrest, including a 1998 crack cocaine distribution conviction in Cobb County.
His career took off after he devoted himself to rap music. His 2003 CD, "Trap Muzik," was well received and "T.I. vs. T.I.P." topped the charts last summer. In May 2006, tragedy struck Harris after his show before an raucous crowd in Cincinnati. As his entourage drove away, one van was hit by gunfire. One of Harris' friends and assistants was shot and killed, and his head of security was wounded. The shooters have not been identified.
Over the next year and a half, Harris appeared to be assembling enough weaponry to start a war or end one according to the Feds. T.I's personal assistant Philant Johnson who was killed in that shooting was a good friend of mine. I heard while I was in Nigeria and was extremely devastated. Was someone trying to kill T.I? Maybe he was trying to protect himself but as a convicted felon, you can't own a gun!
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