Confessed Jamaican drug lord Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke has written a letter to a New York judge asking for leniency, according to a report in the New York Times. Coke is facing a maximum 23 years behind bars following a guilty plea in the United States Southern District Court of New York on July 31. Coke, 42, pleaded guilty before US District judge Robert P. Patterson. Coke is said to have mailed a seven-page letter, which was neatly handwritten to Patterson, on September 7. “Good day to you, sir,” the letter to the judge began. “I am humbly asking if you could be lenient on me.” Coke, who addressed the judge as ‘Justice Paterson’, reportedly accepted responsibility for his actions, but did not apologise. He asked that the judge use his “discretion” and sentence him “below the guideline range.” Coke, who is still revered in sections of West Kingston gave 13 reasons for leniency. Among them are the recent loss of his mother, and trauma experienced by eight-year-old son following Coke’s arrest. “I was told that while she was on her deathbed, she was crying and kept calling my name,” Coke wrote of his mother. In regards to his son, Coke penned: “I was told that he is constantly asking for his daddy.” Coke also reportedly complained once deported, after serving his sentence, he would leave the country “without the possibility of ever visiting” his brother or other relatives who he said lived here. In the letter, Coke described “charitable deeds and social services” he carried out in West Kingston. These services he said benefitted the elderly, the unemployed and parents. He also mentioned a ‘back to school’ treat which he held for children in West Kingston. Coke also noted he organised a parents committee, which ensured that children and teenagers were off the streets by 8 pm Sunday through Thursday. According to the New York Times report, at least one resident, Maxine Riley from West Kingston, has written to Patterson asking for him to give Dudus a life sentence. “I hope that you exercise your judicial discretion to put him away forever,” she wrote. “Mr. Coke is the Hitler of the Caribbean; this is an opportunity for him and his murderous organisation to be permanently dismantled,” she wrote. Riley said Coke was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Jamaicans, including her own son, Dexter, who was killed by Dudus’ gunmen when he was 16. Coke, who was extradited to the US on June 24, 2010 to answer narco and firearm charges, will be sentenced on December 8 at approximately 4 pm. Coke was extradited following standoff between the Bruce Golding led Government and the US. Dorothy Lightbourne, attorney general at the time, refused to sign the authority to proceed against Coke, saying his constitutional rights were being breached. Golding’s JLP then engaged US law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips in a bid to lobby the US government on the matter. However, under public pressure, Lightbourne signed the authority to proceed against Coke, and this progressed to a standoff between men loyal to Coke and members of the security forces. A bloody battle in Tivoli led to the deaths of more than 70 people. Coke went into hiding and was captured, allegedly disguised in a woman’s wig, in the company of clergyman Al Miller. He waived his right to fight his extradition to the US and has been awaiting trial since. (Jamaica Gleaner)
