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‘Wire’ creator David Simon urges judge ‘to consider leniency’ for man involved in actor Michael K. Williams’ death
Baltimore Sun
Jul 12, 2023
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/4DGK4HGJHBECLIMD2APGC2VEH4.jpg "David Simon, left, and Michael K. Williams attend the Vice Season 6 premiere in New York City in 2018.")
David Simon, left, and Michael K. Williams attend the "Vice" Season 6 premiere in New York City in 2018. (Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
As a federal judge prepares to sentence a 71-year-old man in connection with the overdose death of actor Michael K. Williams, who portrayed Omar Little in “The Wire,” the creator of the Baltimore-based drama series cited the late actor’s values in a plea for the court to consider a lighter punishment.
“As a close friend and professional colleague of Mr. Williams, I urge you to consider leniency,” David Simon wrote in the letter to U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams, who is scheduled to preside over a July 25 sentencing for Carlos Macci, one of four co-defendants accused of selling Williams a fatal dose of fentanyl.
In the three-page letter filed by Macci’s attorney last week, Simon wrote that Williams held a “commitment to challenging our nation’s rates of incarceration and our reliance on drug prohibition” that continued from the set of “The Wire,” which first aired in 2002 and concluded in 2008, to the actor’s later documentary work and engagement with restorative justice groups.
In the HBO series about police and the drug trade in Baltimore, Williams portrayed Little, a stickup artist with a strict moral code whose whistling of “The Farmer in the Dell” would announce his presence to street dealers. Simon, once a reporter for The Sun, wrote in the letter the show was a “careful critique of our drug prohibition and the human cost underlying those policies” based on his experience covering the drug war as a journalist.
After “The Wire,” Williams went on to advocate on matters such as police reform and public health, tackling some in the BET series “Finding Justice” as well as the world of illicit trade in the Viceland series “Black Market.” Though the actor lived in New York, friends noted Baltimore was “a second home to him.”
Williams was found dead in his New York apartment in September 2021, and investigators later determined his death was due to acute drug intoxication. He was 54.
Link to full letter
A letter for leniency
This is the full text of a letter written on behalf of one of the defendants charged with narcotics violations in conjunction with the death of my friend and collaborator Michael K. Williams. It was written at the request of Mr. Macci's defense attorney, but what follows will make fully clear...
davidsimon.com
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