Lawyers for music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs have asked a federal judge in New York to impose no more than a 14-month prison sentence when he is sentenced on October 3, arguing that the Grammy-winning artist has already suffered irreparable personal and professional losses.
In a court filing on Monday, defense attorneys urged Judge Arun Subramanian to recognize that Combs has served over a year in custody following his conviction on two Mann Act charges related to prostitution. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years. Prosecutors are expected to recommend a significantly longer sentence.
“Mr. Combs’s celebrity status in music, fashion, media and finance has been shattered and his legacy destroyed,” the filing read. “He has been punished enough.”
The lawyers described harrowing conditions during Combs’s 13 months at the Metropolitan Detention Center, including constant suicide watch, lack of clean water, cramped dormitory-style housing, and food sometimes containing maggots. They said the experience has left Combs sober for the first time in 25 years and eager to begin a “new chapter” in life.
Combs, 54, was convicted in July of two prostitution-related charges but acquitted of more serious racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking counts that could have carried a life sentence. His trial featured testimony from ex-girlfriends who alleged they were pressured into drug-fueled sex marathons with male sex workers, encounters they said Combs orchestrated and sometimes filmed.
The defense submission emphasised that the jury’s acquittals amounted to an “affirmative indication of innocence” on the most serious accusations, and argued prosecutors had “lost perspective” by pushing for a lengthy prison term.
Combs’s lawyers also detailed the collapse of his business empire: more than 100 employees laid off, cancelled projects including a Hulu reality series, removal from school boards he founded, and Howard University revoking his honorary doctorate. They said the fallout has extended to his seven children, some of whom lost career opportunities and were named in civil lawsuits stemming from the scandal.
Despite the turmoil, Combs has started teaching business and entrepreneurship classes to fellow inmates, a program his lawyers called “one of the most impactful endeavors of his life.”
“He is a humbled man who now understands that the most important things are his family and service to others,” they wrote.
Erizia Rubyjeana
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