The Wire creator David Simon asks for leniency for man who sold Michael K. Williams drugs

Addiction is an insidious disease, one which ruins lives in countless ways. The Wire co-creator and former Baltimore police reporter David Simon clearly understands this, and in a show of real grace, is asking for mercy in the case of Carlos Macci, 71, one of the four individuals arrested in connection with the 2021 fentanyl-based overdose and death of actor Michael K. Williams.

Per The New York Times, Simon submitted a three-page letter urging for leniency as part of a filing on behalf of Macci, who faces sentencing later this month. Simon and Williams became close friends on the set of The Wire, in which Williams played Robin Hood-esque stick-up man Omar Little.

“What happened to Mike is a grievous tragedy,” Simon wrote in his letter. “But I know that Michael would look upon the undone and desolate life of Mr. Macci and know two things with certainty: First, that it was Michael who bears the fuller responsibility for what happened.”

Second, he continued, “No possible good can come from incarcerating a 71-year-old soul, largely illiterate, who has himself struggled with a lifetime of addiction” and who sold drugs “as someone caught up in the diaspora of addiction himself.”

Williams always took full responsibility for his addiction, Simon noted, and “readily agreed to let us help him address his drug use, going so far as to seek the constant companionship of a crew member whose job was to assure some distance between Mike and temptation.” This, coupled with the actor’s staunch opposition to mass incarceration, “convinces me that he would want me to write this letter,” Simon said.

Macci, who pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to distribute narcotics, has been jailed since his arrest in February 2022. The court’s probation office is recommending a sentence of 10 years, but Macci’s lawyers are arguing for a sentence of time served instead, about a year and a half.

Williams was “one of the finest actors with whom I have had the honor to collaborate and one of the most thoughtful, gracious and charitable souls I could ever call a friend,” Simon wrote in his letter. “I never failed to see him take responsibility for himself and his decisions.”