Two former Baltimore officers get federal sentences reduced

<p>BALTIMORE &mdash; Two former Baltimore police officers serving hundreds of years in prison for detaining and robbing drug dealers in the early 2000s had their sentences reduced to 20 years each by a federal judge.</p>
<p>U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang granted reductions for William King and Antonio Murray on Monday, The Baltimore Sun <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-ci-cr-king-murray-sentence-reduced-20210525-7a2n7xjwd5hinnqutje3rjkvyq-story.html">reported</a>.</p>
<p>Attorneys for the men <a href="https://j7dfh9pbumnyhazfmcsfgm9m.apnews.com/article/sentencing-baltimore-robbery-crime-1b01f88a41acb24e3e9872f77796e522">argued earlier this year</a> that they would have received far shorter sentences today under reforms that were passed by Congress since the officers were convicted in 2006.</p>
<p>“Mr. King is grateful to the Court for recognizing that a reduction of his earlier sentence of 315 years was warranted,” his attorney Steve Levin told the newspaper. “While 20 years is still a significant term of imprisonment, it provides Mr. King with some hope of once again becoming a productive member of society.”</p>
<p>The U.S. attorney’s office believed King’s sentence should have been reduced from 315 years to 65 and Murray’s should have been reduced from 139 years to 30.</p>
<p>Chuang said 20-year sentences for both “roughly corresponds with the type of sentences presently imposed in comparable police corruption cases in this District.”</p>
<p>In the more recent case of Baltimore’s <a href="https://apnews.com/article/8f96893c858f4a2996d8069bcf1da8e3">Gun Trace Task Force</a> — which robbed drug dealers, planted drugs and guns on innocent people and assaulted seemingly random civilians — the longest sentence of any officer was 25 years.</p>
<p>King and Murray were convicted of robbery, extortion, and drug and handgun offenses. Their sentences were much higher because the court was required to consecutively run various gun-related convictions.</p>
<p>The federal system has no parole, but attorneys said the former officers could be released to halfway houses soon after their sentence reductions, according to The Sun.</p>