Follow @bward3 @sharmantv and @fox25court on Twitter for live courtroom updates from James "Whitey" Bulger's sentencing.
BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) – The final chapter in the story of James "Whitey" Bulger was unfolding in court Wednesday morning.
The
84-year-old South Boston's sentencing hearing began Wednesday. Bulger's
lawyer Hank Brennan said Bulger still feels the trial is a "sham,"
something he said during the trial when refusing to testify, and
therefore he won't speak in the pre-trial sentencing process.
Judge Denise Casper
announced that all victims' families, including those like Debra Davis
whose cases weren't found proven, would have a chance to speak if they
wanted.
Prosecutors have asked for two consecutive life
prison terms, plus five years, for a string of murders and extortions he
was convicted of committing.
"Bulger is one of the most violent
and despicable criminals in Boston history. Having now been convicted of
31 felonies ... Bulger richly deserves to spend the rest of his life in
jail," prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.
Among other
issues Judge Casper will take up is restitution for the families of 19
people killed by the Winter Hill Gang, though Bulger was only proved to
have been involved with 11 of the killings.
During his two-month
trial, prosecutors portrayed Bulger as a ruthless, hands-on crime boss
who planned or ordered some of the murders and committed others himself.
"Whitey Bulger's decades-long crime spree is now over," prosecutors wrote.
"Presiding
over a massive criminal enterprise, Bulger extorted dozens of
individuals, flooded South Boston with cocaine, shot innocent people,
strangled women, murdered his competitors, corrupted FBI agents, and
then ran away and hid for 16 years when he was finally indicted," they
wrote. "While many of the victims will speak for themselves and their
loved ones at the time of sentencing, the actual sentence should speak
for itself: life in prison."
Bulger's "horrific crimes and
sadistic behavior ... demonstrate that he deserves no mercy at the time
of sentencing," prosecutors wrote.
During the trial, Bulger's
lawyers strongly denied a claim by prosecutors and Bulger's former
partner that he was a longtime FBI informant who ratted on the Italian
Mafia and other crime groups.
Bulger did not testify. In response
to questions from the judge, he called the trial a "sham" and said he
decided not to testify because the judge had prohibited him from
presenting a defense using his claim that he had received immunity for
his crimes decades ago from a now-deceased federal prosecutor.
Follow @bward3 @sharmantv and @fox25court on Twitter for live courtroom updates from James "Whitey" Bulger's sentencing.
