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| Brooke Astor's son: I'm too sick to be imprisoned |
| By google.com |
| Published: 12/07/2009 |
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NEW YORK — Brooke Astor's 85-year-old son has turned to friends in high places — including Whoopi Goldberg and Al Roker — to help him make the case that he is too sick and doesn't deserve to go to prison for plundering his philanthropist mother's fortune. "I am asking you respectfully to not put this 85 year old gentleman in jail. I cannot believe he will even be able to survive there," Goldberg wrote in one of about 70 letters that were among court papers filed Friday by Anthony Marshall's lawyers in a bid to persuade a judge to dismiss the part of his conviction that requires time behind bars. "He has suffered enough through this humiliation and ugliness," the comedian added. Defense lawyers say any prison time could effectively be a death sentence for the frail Marshall — an unwarranted penalty for a decorated World War II veteran and former U.S. ambassador convicted of a nonviolent crime, they say. Marshall is seeking a dismissal of the top charge in his Oct. 8 conviction. The first-degree grand larceny count carries a mandatory prison term of at least a year and as long as a quarter-century. He is due to be sentenced Dec. 21. Marshall's hopes hinge on a state law that lets judges toss charges "in furtherance of justice," based on factors including a defendant's condition and character and the circumstances of the offense. They can do so even after a conviction and without other legal reasons for a dismissal, such as insufficient evidence or procedural problems. But legal experts say courts use the power sparingly, and Marshall will have to overcome issues including the gravity of his crime and the appearance of giving a break to a rich, blue blood defendant. Read More. |
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