An attorney for the man who admitted to firing into a crowded Brooklyn subway train in 2022, injuring 10 people and inciting panic during the rush hour commute, is asking for leniency ahead of his sentencing next week.
Frank Robert James, 64, pleaded guilty to all 11 charges against him earlier this year, including committing a terrorist act on a mass transit system and discharging a firearm while committing a violent crime.
Federal prosecutors have previously asked for a sentence of 32 to 37 years. James’ attorney, Mia Eisner-Grynberg, requested a prison term of 18 years — a sentence she said her client is unlikely to survive, due to his age, health and the shorter life expectancy of people behind bars.
“Mr. James is not evil. He is very, very ill,” Eisner-Grynberg wrote in a memo filed this week. “A just sentence in this case tempers the natural urge for retribution with mercy.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York declined to comment on the defense’s request.
On April 12, 2022, James set off smoke bombs and fired 32 bullets from a Glock 17 pistol on a packed N train passing through Sunset Park, the memo states. Graphic videos of the shooting’s aftermath that circulated on social media showed passengers rushing off the train and bloody victims collapsing onto the platform. Prosecutors said he had been planning the attack for years.
At least one victim has sued Glock, alleging that the gun James used in the shooting caused serious injuries. The incident also stoked fears about subway safety as many New Yorkers were weighing whether to return to mass transit after the COVID-19 pandemic.
James has admitted in court that he knew firing into an enclosed subway car could have killed people, and his attorney wrote that her client acted with “extreme and depraved indifference to human life.” But she said his actions were the culmination of childhood abuse, decades of severe mental illness and homelessness, and many failed…
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