A New York City judge reduced the life sentences of two organized crime killers under former President Donald Trump’s First Step Act.
Mob capodecina Anthony Russo, who ordered multiple murders during the Colombo crime family war of the early 1990s, and Paul Moore, a drug trafficker who fatally shot a rival, each had their lifelong sentences reduced to 35 years by judge Frederic Block, 88, according to the New York Daily News. The two still have quite a while left in their prison sentences — Russo, 70, still must serve six more years while Moore, 56, must serve around three. Block cited their good behavior in prison as justification, as well as praising the First Step Act as justification for his decision.
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“I am letting two murderers sentenced to life out of prison,” Block wrote Wednesday, according to the outlet. “But I have painstakingly endeavored to explain why it is the appropriate thing to do under the First Step Act.”
“The Act was a remarkable piece of bipartisan legislation by an otherwise divided Congress and reflected the realization by lawyers on both sides of the aisle that sentencing reform of the judicial system was sorely needed,” he went on to say, adding that the legislation has led to the reduction of nearly 4,000 prison sentences.
The First Step Act was signed into law by Trump in 2018 and is described by the Federal Bureau of Prisons as “the culmination of a bipartisan effort to improve criminal justice outcomes, as well as to reduce the size of the federal prison population while also creating mechanisms to maintain public safety.”
The move to reduce both Russo and Moore’s sentences was criticized by federal prosecutors, who argued that the two could still reenter and take up important positions in the world of organized crime.
“Russo rose through the ranks to serve as a captain of the Colombo crime family, a position from which he gave direction to the ‘made men’ who reported to him,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Devon Lash wrote about Russo, according to the New York Daily News. “His risk he poses (even at an advanced age) comes from the influence he has over others in the enterprise.”
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Federal prosecutors made similar arguments about Moore, a Jamaican immigrant who served as an enforcer for a drug kingpin, and who shot a rival drug dealer to death and a fellow gang member in the leg after he disrespected his boss.
Block wrote that Russo “has clearly demonstrated that he has achieved extraordinary rehabilitation,” along with Moore.
