‘The Wire’ creator asks for mercy for man accused of actor’s death
The 2021 overdose of actor Michael K. Williams, famous for playing a gunman from the drug world, is an example of fentanyl’s deadly march. As a man charged in connection with his death faces sentencing, one of Mr. Williams’ best friends wants the case to stand for something else: mercy.
David Simon, co-creator of HBO’s “The Wire,” in which Mr. Williams, who played the widely feared robber Omar Little, has written to a Manhattan judge urging her to grant clemency to the defendant, Carlos Macci, 71.
Mr Simon’s three-page letter was part of a petition by Mr Macci’s lawyer on Thursday to Federal District Court Judge Ronnie Abrams.
Mr Simon noted that Mr Williams, 54, always maintained that he was responsible for himself and that the decision to use or quit drugs would always be his own – and that attitude, combined with his longstanding opposition to mass incarceration and the drug war, “convinces me that he would want me to write this letter.”
“What happened to Mike is a painful tragedy,” wrote Mr Simon. “But I know that Michael would look at Mr. Macci’s undone and abandoned life and know two things for sure: First, that it was Michael who bears full responsibility for what happened.”
And second, Mr. Simon continued: “No good can come of locking up a 71-year-old soul, largely illiterate, who herself has struggled with a lifetime of addiction” and who sold drugs not for profit “but rather if someone caught herself into the diaspora of addiction.”
“The Wire” was a five-season panorama of the Baltimore drug trade, where Mr. Simon was once a police reporter. It tracked the street’s narcotics and associated corruption through every municipal institution. Mr. Williams’ character made a living by robbing dealers, his presence foretold by a ominous whistled version of “The Farmer in the Dell” and shouts of “Omar is coming!”
Mr. Simon said that during the third season of “The Wire,” Mr. Williams quietly acknowledged his struggles with addiction to a producer. “Then, in order to continue working – which was in fact a stabilizing influence in his life – he immediately agreed to let us help him deal with his drug use, even going so far as to seek the constant companionship of a crew member whose job was to ensure some distance between Mike and temptation.
The show ended in 2008 and after that, Mr. Williams openly discussed his struggles with drug addiction. Mr Macci is one of four men charged in connection with his death.
The four men have all pleaded guilty and Mr Macci’s sentencing is scheduled for later this month. According to the file of his attorney, Benjamin Zeman, the court’s probation office recommended a 10-year sentence for Mr Macci, who pleaded guilty in April to agreeing with others to possess and distribute narcotics.
Mr Zeman’s application asks that Mr Macci, who has been in prison since his arrest in February 2022, be given a prison sentence of nearly a year and a half.
Mr Zeman said he asked Mr Simon to write on behalf of Mr Macci because “he has given such a thoughtful and eloquent voice about what caused the failure of the war on drugs, and I knew about his relationship with Mr Williams and all. that Mr. Williams had spoken on this subject in the course of his life.
Mr. Simon, in his letter, called Mr. Williams “one of the finest actors I have had the honor of working with and one of the most thoughtful, gracious and charitable souls I could ever call a friend.”
“I never saw him take responsibility for himself and his decisions,” added Mr Simon.