Recommendations of the Editorial team
Sean Combs’ lawyers have pressured an appeals court to speed up its decision on whether the Bad Boy founder was wrongfully convicted after his criminal trial – hoping to secure his release from prison.
The 56-year-old is currently serving a 50-month prison sentence at Fort Dix, a low-security federal facility in New Jersey, after being convicted of arranging prostitution across state lines. His expected release date is April 15, 2028, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
The conviction follows Combs’ eight-week trial last summer in which he was charged with racketeering conspiracy and human trafficking for the sexual exploitation of his girlfriends Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a woman identified as Jane. Although a New York jury rejected those charges, it found Combs guilty of arranging male escorts to travel across state lines for sexual encounters – known as “freak-offs” – in order to sleep with the women.
Lawyers attack sentence
After Combs’ conviction in October, his lawyers appealed U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian’s ruling. They argued, among other things, that in sentencing he improperly took into account conduct of which Combs had been acquitted – including fraud and coercion.
Combs was not present at Thursday’s two-hour hearing. His attorney, Alexandra Shapiro, argued his case before three federal appeals judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. “This case raises an important question about respect for jury verdicts and the public’s trust in our criminal justice system,” said Shapiro, who was also part of Combs’ defense team during the trial. “Several judges have questioned the constitutionality of sentencing based on acquitted charges.”
The judges gave no indication of when a decision would be made, nor did they indicate what outcome they were leaning toward. They questioned Shapiro and Assistant United States Attorney Christy Slavik closely about their respective arguments.
Judges ask critical questions
A judge noted that it was constitutionally permissible to consider all of Combs’ conduct in determining an appropriate sentence and asked Combs’ attorney why the “factual findings” from the trial – such as the “mental abuse, emotional abuse and drugging of the two women” – should not be included.
The same judge pressed Slavik on why the Mann Act – the legal basis for the charges of arranging prostitution across state lines – was treated like a “sideshow” while prosecutors pursued their main theories of human trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. “Why shouldn’t we hold you to the way you conducted the case?” the judge asked. “They went before the jury and said, ‘This man did all these terrible things – as part of the RICO conspiracy, for the purposes of human trafficking’ – and they acquitted him.” Combs’ appeal is part of his multi-pronged effort to secure his release. He has also asked the appeals court to overturn his conviction and written a personal letter to his old acquaintance, President Donald Trump, asking for a pardon.
